SUDAN NEWS ALERT: BBC - Sudan scraps apostasy law and alcohol ban for non-Muslims

12/7/2020: BBC - Sudan scraps apostasy law and alcohol ban for non-Muslims

 The BBC report on “the first public explanation” of Sudan’s “wide-reaching reforms” including allowing non-Muslims to drink alcohol, and scrapping the apostasy law and public flogging.

 "We [will] drop all the laws violating the human rights in Sudan," Justice Minister Nasredeen Abdelbari said. He added that while non-Muslims are allowed to consume alcohol in private, the ban on Muslim drinking remains, and non-Muslims may still be punished if caught drinking with Muslims.

 Abdelbari said government was trying to safeguard the rights of the country's non-Muslims, who make up an estimated 3% of the population.

 On the scrapping of the apostasy law, Abdelbari said “we are keen to demolish any kind of discrimination that was enacted by the old regime and to move toward equality of citizenship and a democratic transformation," and that the “declaration that someone was an apostate was a threat to the security and safety of society.”

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Reuters - Sudan to allow drinking alcohol for non-Muslims, ban FGM

12/7/2020: Reuters - Sudan to allow drinking alcohol for non-Muslims, ban FGM, by Khaled Abdelaziz

 Reuters’ report on Sudan’s legal changes provides some contextual background.

 Sudan will permit non-Muslims to consume alcohol and strengthen women’s rights, including banning female genital mutilation (FGM), justice minister Nasredeen Abdelbari said, “in a reversal of almost four decades of hard-line Islamist policies.”

 Sudan will also decriminalise apostasy and no longer require women to have a permit from male family members to travel with their children.

 Reuters note that former President Jaafar Nimeiri’s introduction of Islamic law in 1983 were a “major catalyst for a 22-year-long war between Sudan’s Muslim north and the mainly Christian south that led in 2011 to South Sudan’s secession.”

 Former president Omar al-Bashir then “extended” Islamic law after he took power in 1989. Citing Sudan’s religious diversity, Reuters note that Sudanese Christians live mainly in Khartoum and in the Nuba mountains near the South Sudan border, with some Sudanese following “traditional” African beliefs.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Guardian - Sudan bans FGM and breaks with hardline Islamist policies

12/7/2020: Guardian - Sudan bans FGM and breaks with hardline Islamist policies, by Jason Burke

“In a decisive break from hard-line policies under the former Islamist government,”

the Guardian reports that Sudan is to ban female genital mutilation (FGM), “cancel prohibitions against religious conversion from Islam,” permit non-Muslims to consume alcohol, and end the requirement of women needing a permit from male family members to travel with their children.  

 Anyone found guilty of performing FGM will be sentenced to up to three years in prison, with Sudan’s justice ministry saying FGM “degrades the dignity of women.”

 The Guardian note that rights groups warned that the practice remained deeply entrenched in the region’s conservative society and that enforcement poses a steep challenge.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Sudan Tribune - FFC should be consulted before new Sudan’s cabinet: official

12/7/2020: Sudan Tribune - FFC should be consulted before new Sudan’s cabinet: official

 Sudan Tribune report that Siddiq Youssef, a leading member of the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) and Sudanese Communist Party political bureau member, said that the Constitutional Document governing the transitional period stipulated that the FFC must be consulted in the upcoming cabinet reshuffle, adding that Prime Minister Hamdok is yet to do so.

 The article also reports that the Sudanese Congress Party (SCoP) announced its intention to join the second Hamdok government. The party said it decided to review its previous decision to not participate in the transitional after realising that it prevented them from contributing positively to the government activities.

 The SCoP added that with the ministerial reshuffle and the expected peace agreement, the new government will no longer be a technocrat cabinet, and that it will include the FFC and armed groups.

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Times - Alaa Salah: Sudan’s ‘woman in white’ on why she’s prepared to die

12/7/19: Times - Alaa Salah: Sudan’s ‘woman in white’ on why she’s prepared to die, by Mark Harrison

 Mark Harrison’s feature piece spoke to Alaa Salah, who went viral for protesting Omar Al Bashir’s regime, in Marrakech at the annual summit of the Women in Africa Initiative.

 Salah said “women have always been in the front, contributing to change,” adding that “people thought Sudanese women were conservative and afraid to speak out, but when they saw it was a girl…addressing the crowd it changed the stereotype.”

 She said she boycotted her university classes because we refuse “we were not going to climb the education ladder at the expense of their martyrs’ blood.”

 Salah said she was “part of millions of people, who knew they “would face the regime’s forces and bullets.” However, “it was a cause dear to our hearts…we felt we represented light and the regime darkness,” she added.

 Following the June 3 massacre she said “the feeling is different now, but we have not lost hope.”

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Multiple sources – Sudan military council says it thwarted coup attempt

12/7/19: Multiple sources – Sudan military council says it thwarted coup attempt

• BBC

• Reuters

• AP

 Various sources report on the latest televised announcement from the military council whereby it was announced that the military council had successfully foiled a coup attempt.

 The news of the thwarted coup was announced in a televised statement by the serving head of the military council’s security committee, Jamal Omar Ibrahim. He revealed that retired and serving officers were involved and that a number of them have since been arrested or detained for their role in the thwarted coup.

 It has been suggested that the coup was attempted in an effort to undermine an agreement made between the military and the opposition regarding the power sharing structure for the next 3 years.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Guardian - Sudan's military leaders accused of ordering massacre

12/7/19: Guardian - Sudan's military leaders accused of ordering massacre, by Ruth Maclean

 The Guardian reports on an investigation by BBC Africa Eye which found that the June 3 massacre was ordered by Sudan’s military rulers.

 BBC Africa Eye’s documentary Sudan’s Livestream Massacre analysed more than 300 videos shot on protesters’ mobiles on the morning of the massacre, also including testimony from soldiers who admitted taking part in it.

 One of the soldiers interview said Rapid Support Forces leader Himedti ordered the massacre, saying “we received the instructions on 20 May…after that, Abdul Rahim Dagalo [another commander] came to see us and told us to clear the sit-in site, because these people have to be made to flee.

 The soldier added that: “for [Sudan] to move forward, and for peace to become a reality, we have to deal decisively with all manifestations of chaos.”