SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Multiple sources – Why social media is going blue for Sudan

14/6/19: Multiple sources – Why social media is going blue for Sudan

People on social media are turning their profile avatars blue and posting blue-themed artwork in memory of 26-year-old Mohamed Mattar, who was killed during an attack by security forces in Sudan at the beginning of June.

The hashtag #blueforSudan has been trending internationally on Twitter as people seek to raise broader awareness of the situation in the country. The colour has been chosen because it was the Instagram avatar of Mattar, an engineering graduate.

The internet movement started when Mattar’s friends turned their profile pictures the same colour as the avatar on his mattar77 account.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Multiple sources - US says distrust between Sudanese parties makes direct talks impossible, urges independent investigation for military crackdown.

14/6/19: Multiple sources – US says distrust between Sudanese parties makes direct talks impossible, urges independent investigation for military crackdown.

 US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Tibor Nagy said that outside mediation is needed to defuse Sudan’s crisis, because the ruling military council and opposition distrust each other too deeply for direct talks following the June 3 massacre.

 Nagy met opposition groups and civil society as well as military council head Abdelfattah Al Burhan. He said that they differed on key points, and the US said the massacre “constituted a 180 degree turn in the way events were going, with murder, rape, pillaging by members of the security forces.”

 Nagy also said that the accounts of victims they spoke to were “harrowing and very persuasive.”

Nagy said the US believes an “independent and credible” investigation is needed, “to figure out what exactly happened, why it happened, who gave the orders, how many victims there were.”

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: AFP - Sudan opposition chief demands probe on protest crackdown

14/6/19: AFP - Sudan opposition chief demands probe on protest crackdown

 AFP reports that Sudan's veteran opposition leader Sadiq Al Mahdi called Friday for an "objective" international investigation into last week's deadly crackdown on protesters, after the ruling military council rejected such a probe.

 Al Mahdi told AFP that “the protest’s dispersal was wrong.”

"It's important that the probe is objective and not biased in favour of the authorities,” he added.

Al Mahdi's elected government, the last in Sudan, was toppled in 1989, in an Islamist-backed coup led by Omar Al Bashir.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: AFP - China, Russia, reject calls for freeze on UN pullout from Sudan

14/6/19: AFP - China, Russia, reject calls for freeze on UN pullout from Sudan

 AFP reports that China and Russia on Friday rejected calls from European and African countries to freeze the planned shutdown of a peacekeeping mission to Sudan's Darfur region.

Britain, France, Germany and the African countries on the Security Council told the group that the decision on closing the joint UN-African Union mission should be put on hold while Sudan is engulfed in crisis. The council is scheduled to vote on the mandate of the mission, known as UNAMID, on June 27.

"The Sudanese government has the capacity to maintain peace and security in Darfur on its own," said China's Deputy Ambassador Wu Haitao.

China, Sudan's major trading partner, has long supported Khartoum's view that the conflict in Darfur was winding down and that peacekeepers were no longer needed.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Multiple sources - Sudan military acknowledges violations in sit-in dispersal

14/6/19: Multiple sources - Sudan military acknowledges violations in sit-in dispersal

 Sudan’s ruling military acknowledged that security forces committed violations when they moved in to disperse protesters at a sit-in camp outside military headquarters in Khartoum last week.

 The spokesman for the ruling military council, Shamsaldeen Kabbashi said that the military council had “decided to disperse the sit-in and a plan was made… but we regret that some mistakes happened.”

 Kabbashi added that an investigation was underway, and that several military officers were already in custody for alleged “deviation” from the action plan set by military leaders.

 “We feel sorry for what happened,” said Kabbashi. “We will show no leniency and we will hold accountable anyone, regardless of their rank, if proven to have committed violations.”

 Kabbashi did not elaborate on the violations beyond describing them as “painful and outrageous.”