SUDAN NEWS ALERT: AP - Sudan needs new date for civilian leadership handover: Sovereign council member

24/9/2021: AP - Sudan needs new date for civilian leadership handover: Sovereign council member

AP report that Mohammad Al-Faki, the civilian spokesman for Sudan’s ruling Sovereign Council, says that the date for the handover of the leadership of council from the military to civilians remains unclear, and requires discussion and a new legal decree from the Justice Ministry.

Al-Faki described the relationship between civilian and military council members as “unwell”, with joint meetings on various topics becoming unproductive in recent weeks.

Sudan’s 2019 constitutional declaration signed in 2019 set the power transfer to civilians for May 2021, but the Juba Peace agreement of October 2020 reset the clock on the transition without specifying a new date for handover. A simple reset of the clock would set a handover of July 2022. “The transition to civilians is not secondary and shouldn’t be left to fate,” al-Faki said, adding that he favoured a proposal to carry out the handover in November.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Radio Dabanga - Sudan revolutionaries urge reform of the armed forces

24/9/2021: Radio Dabanga - Sudan revolutionaries urge reform of the armed forces

Radio Dabanga report on the response by the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) to comments made by Sudan’s military leaders – Abdulfattah al-Burhan and Himedti – that civilians were to blame for the failed coup attempt.

The FFC considered the statements “a setback to the agenda of the revolution and the democratic transformation”, which contained “a load of fallacies and baseless accusations against the FFC”, which constitute “a direct threat to the democratic transition as they attempt to create a rift between the forces of the civil revolution and the armed forces of the people, and undermine the foundations on which the revolution was based”.

The FFC urged the acceleration of the reform of the military and security service, the removal of remnants [of the Al Bashir regime], and the implementation of the stipulations of the 2020 Juba Peace Agreement, in particular the implementation of the security arrangements protocol.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Sudan Tribune - Burhan comes close to admitting Islamists’ involvement in failed coup

24/9/2021: Sudan Tribune - Burhan comes close to admitting Islamists’ involvement in failed coup

Sudan Tribune report that head of the armed forces Abdulfattah al-Burhan pointed to the involvement of civilians in the failed coup attempt, “but stopped short of admitting they were Islamists.”

Despite Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok allegations, al-Burhan  and other senior military officials previously dismissed the involvement of civilian Islamists in the coup attempt.

"The coup involved some civilians…we will disclose their political affiliation at the end of the investigation," al-Burhan said, adding that the army had intelligence but waited “to arrest [putschists] in the act so that the coup attempt will be easy to prove”.

While Hamdok and the leaders of the Forces for Freedom and Changes (FFC) accused al-Burhan of delaying sacking Islamists from the army, “which enables Islamist attempts to seize power,” al-Burhan says Islamists would not have the opportunity to do so if civilian forces stopped quarrelling.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Radio Dabanga - Protests against gold mining in Sudan's Northern State continue

24/9/19: Radio Dabanga - Protests against gold mining in Sudan's Northern State continue

 Radio Dabanga reports on the ongoing Sudanese protests against gold mining operations.

 Mohamed El Taayshi, member of the Sovereign Council, met with a delegation from Kadeer and Kalogi in South Kordofan in Khartoum, in which he called for suspension of the work of gold companies in South Kordofan.

 “If these companies are found to be involved in the death of residents and animals, and environmental pollution, they should be brought to trial and must compensate those affected,” he said. El Taayshi added that “most of the capitalist companies have no religion, ethics and or ideology”.

 The delegation from Kadeer and Kalogi provided a comprehensive explanation to the member of the Sovereign Council on the abuses of gold mining companies and the environmental and health disasters that have occurred in the region, such as genetic deformities, animal deaths and people dying.

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: CNN - President Trump, act now to give democracy a chance in Sudan

24/9/19: CNN - President Trump, act now to give democracy a chance in Sudan, by Jimmy Carter

 Jimmy Carter, the former US President and founder of the peace and health advocacy non-profit Carter Center, calls for the Trump administration to work with Congress to immediately lift Sudan’s terror sponsor designation.

 Carter highlights economic and health consequences from the terror designation – citing Sudan’s inability to access the international banking system, benefit from foreign investment, that other countries cannot aid Sudan without incurring US sanctions, and that critically needed medical supplies are impossible to import.

 Carter warns that failure to repeal the terror designation may disrupt the democratic transition and lead to instability across the Horn of Africa and increase tensions in a Red Sea zone already roiled by the war in Yemen – as prime minister Hamdok’s civilian government vulnerable if continuing economic deprivation leads to popular frustrations boiling over, creating conditions for counterrevolutionary actors to disrupt Sudan’s democratic transition.

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Human Rights Watch - Sudan’s New Investigation Committee Raises Concerns

24/9/19: Human Rights Watch - Sudan’s New Investigation Committee Raises Concerns

 Human Rights Watch call for Hamdok’s investigation committee into the June 3 massacre to work transparently, incorporate findings from competent sources, and provide strong recommendations on achieving real accountability, including through wider reform of the justice and security sector.

 HRW argue that Hamdok’s seven-member committee raises concerns about meeting basic standards, given that it includes a representative from the Ministry of Defence, which oversees the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that is blamed for the massacre. HRW add that a Supreme Court judges’ appointment to the committee will not necessarily bring impartiality and independence given the nature of Sudan’s judiciary

 HRW call for the families of victims to be represented in the committee, with a regional supervision to ensure it maintains independence, and that the committee should document events back to December 2018 when the protests started.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: AFP - Records show 85 killed in June crackdown: Sudan rights body

24/9/19: AFP - Records show 85 killed in June crackdown: Sudan rights body

 Sudanese police records show 85 people were killed in the June 3 massacre the Sudan’s Human Rights Commission said, despite the Forces of Freedom and Change saying that at least 127 were killed and hundreds more wounded.

 Commission chief Hurriya Ismail told reporters in Khartou that the armed men who dispersed the protest camp were dressed in uniforms worn by police and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, using “maximum force without giving any warning to those inside the sit-in which was a peaceful and legal gathering.”

 "What happened was a dangerous violation of the right to life, and those involved should face the court for this criminal offence,” she added.

 Ismail's comments come just two days after the country's new Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok set up a seven-member committee to probe the crackdown as demanded by the Forces of Freedom and Change.