B) SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Arab Center DC – The Muddled Diplomacy of Sudan’s Tripartite Mechanism

17/6/2022: Arab Center DC – The Muddled Diplomacy of Sudan’s Tripartite Mechanism, by Kholood Khair

 Kholood Khair, the founding manager of Confluence Advisory, calls for the UNITMAS, AU and IGAD tripartite mechanism to invest in developing new, more relevant mediation pathways that complement Sudan’s rich pro-democracy movement in order to prevent itself from becoming irrelevant.

Alongside suggesting closer engagement with the concerns of the resistance committees, the Sudanese Professionals Association, and the families of martyrs, Khair also calls for better and more targeted outreach, particularly to women, young people, and internally displaced persons “who are entirely left out of the process”.

Khair adds that building credibility with a broad range of Sudanese would both dispel suspicions around international actors’ motivations as well as counter the pre-existing center-periphery inequity and privileging of elite narratives in Sudan.

A) SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Arab Center DC – The Muddled Diplomacy of Sudan’s Tripartite Mechanism

17/6/2022: Arab Center DC – The Muddled Diplomacy of Sudan’s Tripartite Mechanism, by Kholood Khair

 Founding manager of Confluence Advisory think-tank Kholood Khair identified challenges facing the UNITAMS, AU and IGAD tripartite mechanism attempting to end Sudan’s political impasse.

Firstly, key pro-democracy groups refuse to participate in talks considered to legitimise the coup, with the failure to engage the resistance committees demonstrating the UN’s “inability” to recognise Sudan’s political shift to broad-based, coalition-led political change.  

Secondly, Khair argues that UNITAMS’ failure to consult frequently neglected Sudanese stakeholders means it has failed to grasp Sudan’s political complexity or power dynamics.

Thirdly, the incorporation of the AU at the military’s behest - under the guise of “African solutions to African problems” - reflects autocrats co-opting anti-colonial refrains when pressured.

Finally, Khair argues that the mechanism’s treatment of concerns regarding justice and accountability for ongoing violence as a “backdrop to the process, rather than central to it” culminates in perceptions of its support for the generals.  

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Radio Dabanga - Protest in North Darfur against violence in camps

17/6/2020: Radio Dabanga - Protest in North Darfur against violence in camps

 Radio Dabanga report that citizens of Kabkabiya locality in North Darfur organised a march to the locality offices yesterday to protest against the continued violence, assassinations, rapes, and beatings in the camps for the displaced.

 Speakers at the ensuing vigil demanded that the coordinators of the camps and the native administration in Kabkabiya address the violence that the inhabitants face. They also called on the authorities to put an end to the violence, including attacks on farmers.

 They claimed that the police fails to fulfil its promise to arrest the perpetrators of the violence that took place in Gargara camp the week earlier.

 The protesters announced that they will not end their sit-in in front of the Kabkabiya locality offices until their demands are met.

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: BBC – Letter from Africa: ‘Sudan’s revolutionaries offline but not silenced’

17/6/19: BBC – Letter from Africa: ‘Sudan’s revolutionaries offline but not silenced’, by Zeinab Mohammed Salih

 Sudanese journalist Zeinab Mohammed Salih describes life without the internet in Sudan, with protesters both unable to gather, nor communicate and share their “disappointment, frustration and anger at the turn of events,” following the June 3 massacre.

 Salih notes the reliance on SMS texts, including her own in order to send work to editors in London, although they  “would not always be delivered.”

 The Sudanese Professionals Association is also using text to mobilise, but not everybody is signed up, with some fearing that the texts are tracked by authorities.

 Salih then notes that accessing officers with good landline internet connection is difficult due to activist-erected barricades, forcing her sister to walk 3 hours to check an email.

 Activists are cut off from “trusted” news sources, only accessing military “mouthpieces” state TV and Saudi channel Al Hadath.

 Thus, people are reliant on “old-fashioned phone calls” to pass on information.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: AP - Sudan protesters urge night rallies amid standoff with army

17/6/19: AP – Sudan protesters urge night rallies amid standoff with army, by Hussein Malla and Samy Magdy

AP reports that Sudan’s protest leaders, the Declaration of Freedom and Change (DFC), on Monday called for night-time demonstrations and marches in Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country, amid a tense standoff with the ruling military over who should lead the transition.

 The DFC said they’ve begun a “revolutionary escalation” to pressure the country’s generals to hand over power to civilians and to condemn the military’s violent dispersal of their sit-in camp in Khartoum earlier this month.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: AFP - EU blames Sudan military council for deadly crackdown

17/6/19: AFP – EU blames Sudan military council for deadly crackdown

 AFP reports that the EU blamed Sudan's military authorities for a bloody crackdown on protesters that left dozens of people dead, demanding a full investigation.

 Foreign ministers from the bloc issued a statement hailing the protest movement that swept away former strongman Omar al-Bashir after three decades in power as "a historic opportunity for Sudan".

 "It is clear that the responsibility lies with the Transitional Military Council (TMC) as the authority in charge of protecting the population," the ministers said in their statement.

 "All human rights violations and abuses committed must be investigated in an independent and transparent manner, and perpetrators held accountable for their acts."