Sudan opposition calls for strikes, protests
(Reuters) Sudan’s main opposition parties on Wednesday called for strikes, sit-ins
and demonstrations to topple the government of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir,
throwing their weight behind anti-austerity protests. Opposition parties,
struggling with an image as fractious and ineffective, had so far only voiced
limited support for the demonstrations, which have rarely mustered more than a few
hundred people at a time. The main opposition groups on Wednesday signed a pact
calling for “collective, peaceful political struggle in all its forms… to
overthrow the regime” including “strikes, peaceful demonstrations, sit-ins and civil
disobedience”. Supporters outside the National Unionist Party’s Office in the
Khartoum suburb of Omdurman, chanted “revolution, revolution until victory”, before
the deal was signed. Farouk Abu Issa, head of the National Consensus Forces, an
umbrella group of opposition parties, said the deal – which vowed to carry out a
“democratic alternative program” after the current government fell – would fuel more
demonstrations. “We want to rally our people, organize our people so that they
stand fast with us in achieving our goal in toppling this regime,” he told Reuters
after the deal was signed. It was not clear when the opposition leaders planned to
bring their members to the streets in force, but activists have called for more
demonstrations on Friday. Information Ministry official Rabie Abdelati said the
opposition parties did not have the popular momentum to turn their vows into action.
“They have no support from the people,” he said. “We are not bothering about what
they are saying.”
Sudan cuts 5 Cabinet posts in austerity program
(7 News) Sudan’s state news agency says five government ministries will be merged as
part of austerity measures that earlier sparked protests. The latest move was
approved Wednesday by President Omar al-Bashir. It reduces the number of Cabinet
posts from 31 to 26. Demonstrations erupted when subsidy cuts increased the cost of
public transportation and doubled the price of fuel and food. Demonstrators have
called for an end to al-Bashir’s 23-year reign. Al-Bashir has explained the need
for belt-tightening steps by noting that since the secession of South Sudan, oil
revenues have dwindled. He also pointed to the cost of the ongoing conflict with
South Sudan. Al-Bashir has been charged by the International Criminal Court with
war crimes over a long conflict in Darfur.
SPLM-N leadership holds talks in Paris over Sudan’s humanitarian crisis
(Sudan Tribune) People’s Liberation Movement – North (SPLM-N) leadership
discussed with new French government officials on Wednesday the political situation
in Sudan and humanitarian crisis in South Kordofan and Blue Nile. Agar and Arman
are in Paris for the first time since the election of Socialist President François
Hollande last May to brief the French officials about the deteriorating humanitarian
situation in the southern Sudan states where the rebels fight against Khartoum
government. The two rebel leaders discussed urged France which is a permanent
member at the UN Security Council to put more pressures on Khartoum government in
coordination with the other members of the international community, reliable sources
told Sudan Tribune. The delegation; in meetings with senior French officials at the
foreign ministry and the presidency, explained that Sudan despite its announced
acceptance of a tripartite initiative to reach the rebel held areas continue to deny
aid groups from working in the rebel held areas. The SPLM-N leaders, who also met
with the ruling Socialist Party, are expected to meet the Sudanese community in
France and to hold a press conference before to leave Paris.
Sudanese journalists protest against censorship
(Al Arabyia) More than 100 Sudanese journalists on Wednesday protested against
censorship and other media restrictions, activists said, amid a government crackdown
on unprecedented anti-regime demonstrations. “It was a very big crowd compared to
other events we organized before,” veteran journalist Faisal Mohammed Salih told
AFP. He said about 100 of his colleagues gathered in front of Sudan’s Human Rights
Commission but others, blocked by state security agents, clustered nearby in three
or four groups. Security agents told the journalists not to hoist banners, Salih
added. The journalists submitted a written memo to the rights commission,
“complaining about censorship and continued harassment of journalists,” he said.
Salih said there were “small clashes” with security forces and two journalists
were briefly detained. On Saturday, the spokesperson for European Union foreign
policy chief Catherine Ashton expressed concern at “growing levels of censorship
and restrictions on the media and the political opposition in Sudan, including the
detention of a number of journalists and political activists.”
UN: Sudanese Refugees in Critical Condition in South Sudan
(Bloomberg) People fleeing war in Sudan are facing “critical” levels of disease
and malnourishment and the United Nations is short of funds to help them, UN High
Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said today. The UN said 217,000 people
have fled fighting between the government and rebels in Sudan’s Blue Nile and
Southern Kordofan states. Ethiopia is hosting 36,000, while the rest are in South
Sudan where heavy rains have flooded camps and blocked movement. “We are
contending with a situation in which many newly arriving refugees are already
dangerously malnourished, the threat from water-borne disease is high, large refugee
populations are in locations that are clearly dangerous, and flooded roads block
access and the possibility of relocating people elsewhere,” Guterres said in an
e-mailed statement. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said it has received $45.9
million of the $219 million it needs this year to respond to the crisis. The agency
said it is particularly worried about an outbreak of disease in Yida camp in South
Sudan’s Unity state, which houses 59,000 people and is receiving as many as 1,000
new arrivals a day.
U.S. Ambassador to South Sudan Visits Abyei
(Sudan Tribune) The United States’ Ambassador to South Sudan, Susan Page, visited
Abyei, a key fertile oil-producing area that is claimed by both Sudan and South
Sudan on Tuesday. The status of the area is one of the main issues still to be
resolved after South Sudan seceded from Sudan last year. Page is visiting the area
to acquaint herself with both security and humanitarian in the area. Community
leaders and the returning displaced persons took the opportunity of Page’s visit to
urge the international community to provide immediate assistance to help rebuild
their lives. Traditional leaders in the area expressed disappointment about what
they claimed was the failure of the United Nations and the African Union to exercise
pressure on Khartoum to implement UNSC Resolution No 2046 and Resolution 1990, which
demanding complete withdrawal of all Sudanese and South Sudanese forces from the
area. Luka Biong Deng, a Chief Representative of South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir
Mayardit in the Abyei Joint Oversight Committee, commended Page’s visit and hoped it
would allow her to get first hand information on the situation.
Sudan’s Delegation On Security Issues Departs to Addis Ababa
(All Africa, Sudan Tribune) Sudanese delegation to Addis Ababa talks on the security
arrangements will travel Wednesday to Addis Ababa before to resume talks on the
buffer zone on Thursday. Sudanese sources said the delegations have two days to end
the discussions on the demilitarized zone which were hampered by the divergences
over a number of disputed areas on the common border. The mediation proposed a map
to define this buffer zone but Sudan vetoed it stressing it includes an area called
‘Mile 14’ and called on the African Union panel to work with the map according to
which the South Sudan got its independence. The leadership council of the National
Congress Party headed by President Omar Al-Bashir will discuss on Wednesday
afternoon a number of propositions and understandings the delegation can put on the
negotiating table. The African Union rejected also a proposal by South Sudan to
hand the border demarcation issue to the international arbitration reminding the two
parties to observe the resolution 2046.