SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Radio Dabanga - Economist: Sudan govt set the wrong priorities

1/9/2021: Radio Dabanga - Economist: Sudan govt set the wrong priorities

Economist and Sudanese Communist Party leader, Dr. Sidgi Kaballo, calls for the government to prioritise internal economic process reforms, enhancing production capacity and improving infrastructure, rather than exchange rates and the budget deficit.

Dr. Kaballo suggested that the government slows down its implementation of IMF conditions to obtain new loans in order to focus on “internal reforms, removing exploiting elements from the economy, expanding agriculture, and structurally solving power outages by setting up solar power plants,” adding that the reforms should focus on the export sector and restoring progressive tax law based on production types.

“Most importantly” Dr. Kaballo called for the recovery of the economy from “parasites” affiliated to the former regime, including by reforming the banking system and ending their monopoly on petrol imports.

Dr. Kaballo further called on the government “to benefit from grants, loans and investments from the international community in irrigation and of solar energy”.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Radio Dabanga – ‘Historic agreement’ signed by Sudan govt, armed groups in Juba

1/9/2020: Radio Dabanga – ‘Historic agreement’ signed by Sudan govt, armed groups in Juba

 Radio Dabanga comprehensively detail the Juba peace agreement, which includes:

 Federal regional governance system re-established, with a national conference to be held to review administrative division of regions.

 Central government and Darfur rebel movements agreed to form a 12,000-strong joint force to maintain security in the region. Power in Darfur will be shared between members of Darfur negotiations track (40%), other movements that signed the agreement (10%), federal government (30%) and stakeholders (20%).

 Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North faction headed by Malik Agar agreed on the autonomy of the Two Areas (South Kordofan and the Blue Nile), with West Kordofan also added. SPLM-N Agar will govern the Blue Nile state, deputy govern South and West Kordofan, and have a 30% right to the executive and legislative bodies in the Two Areas.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Radio Dabanga - Sudan rebels: nominations for ministers are ‘quotas in its ugliest form’

1/9/19: Radio Dabanga - Sudan rebels: nominations for ministers are ‘quotas in its ugliest form’

 Radio Dabanga reports that the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) rejects the list of nominations of ministers for the interim government, calling on Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok to conduct broader consultations, including the SRF, before forming a government.

 In a statement, the SRF said that “the revolution has been taken over by individuals and political forces that use revolution to get power themselves.”

 They accused the Forces of Freedom and Change of being disinterested in resolving issues of war, citizenship and diversity .

 SRF chairman Minni Minnawi accused the FFC of racism, and stated that they “hijacked” the revolution, citing SRF members drafting the Declaration of Freedom and Change and leading the political committee abroad.

 Minnawi disputed the FFC claim that the SRF demanded a fixed number of ministers in the transitional government, saying that the SRF merely called for the peace to be centred in the Constitutional Declaration.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Multiple sources – Sudan PM Hamdok rejects some FFC nominees from Sudan’s transitional cabinet

1/9/19: Multiple sources – Sudan PM Hamdok rejects some FFC nominees from Sudan’s transitional cabinet

• AFP

• Sudan Tribune

 Sudan prime minister Abdulla Hamdok has reportedly rejected 5 proposed ministers from the 18 selected by the Forces of Freedom and Change to be part of Sudan’s new Cabinet.

 Hamdok has instead proposed a female minister of foreign affairs, and Cabinet representation from peripheral Sudanese regions South Kordofan and the Nuba Mountains.

 Controversially, Hamdok declined the appointment of Madani Abbas Madani, the only known FFC negotiator to be nominated to join the government. The FFC relied upon Madani to be their link with the cabinet.

 Sudanese government employee Hassan Adelmagid said that the delayed Cabinet is not good as Sudan has lacked a government for five months, and needs to form one quickly amid its “great deal of challenges”

 Government employee Sanya Mohamed said the delay may be good “if they serve the purpose of bringing in competent people,” but “worrying” if it is over disagreements over the candidates.

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: AFP - In post-Bashir Sudan, change comes in many guises

1/9/19: AFP - In post-Bashir Sudan, change comes in many guises

 AFP’s feature piece explores social changes in Sudan following the overthrow of Omar Al Bashir – addressing contrasting priorities between urban and rural Sudanese.

 Hairdresser Mazin Kamel told of new personal freedoms for young men to have “modern hairstyles that would have incurred punishment” under Al Bashir’s regime. AFP add that the sight of young women wearing jeans outside Khartoum University or smoking shisha is no longer uncommon.

 Meanwhile, outside of Khartoum, “the most tangible change that Sudan’s revolution against Bashir” brought for Samya Siddiq – a single mother of three – is the right to earn a living by selling tea.

 Women were banned from selling tea under public order laws, due to the assumption that they were involved in prostitution, as they were often internally displaced from Sudanese conflict zones.

 Siddiq says she did not follow Sudanese politics closely, and her ability to work again is the only change she knows.