Qatar’s emir to visit cash-strapped Sudan
(Al Gazeera) The emir will visit Khartoum to discuss “bilateral relations” days after UN reports an escalation of violence in Darfur. The emir of Qatar, a key backer of Sudan’s Islamist regime, is to visit cash-strapped Khartoum for talks on bolstering ties, days after the UN and African Union raised an alarm over the upsurge in violence in Darfur. Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani’s one-day trip on Wednesday will come as tensions reached unprecedented levels between Doha and other Gulf states over its perceived support for the widely-banned Muslim Brotherhood.
Read More: http://www.aljazeera.com/
Sudan not yet invited to EU-Africa summit: sources
(Sudan Tribune) The Sudanese government has not received an invitation to participate in the 4th European Union (EU)-Africa summit taking place in Belgium next week, sources told Sudan Tribune. Earlier this week the Sudanese foreign minister Ali Karti said that his country will boycott the summit but gave no reason for this decision. But diplomatic sources said that invitations for this conference are usually addressed to the heads of state which in this case is president Omer Hassan al-Bashir who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) since 2009 on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. According to Agence France Presse (AFP), the EU refused to invite Sudan, although a Brussels official said the African Union (AU) was free to invite Bashir. The 3rd Africa- EU summit which took place in Libya in 2010 saw a diplomatic fallout between Tripoli and Khartoum after the former asked Bashir to stay away and send someone else. At the time a Spanish official told Associated Press (AP) that the 27 members of the EU had agreed to stand up and walk out if the Sudanese president appeared at the joint summit.
Read More: http://www.sudantribune.com/
Al Bashir, Deby in Um Jaras a ‘show’: Darfur rebels
(Radio Dabanga) The movements of Justice and Equality (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation led by Minni Minawi (SLM-MM) have rejected the Second Um Jaras Forum for Peace, Security and Peaceful Co-Existence in Darfur which opened on Wednesday in Chad. The Chadian President Idris Deby and Sudan’s Vice-President Hassabo Mohamed Abdel Rahman attended the opening in eastern Chad. President Deby said that Chad has no agenda in Darfur and called on the movements to join the peace process. The two movements described the conference, which concludes on Sunday, and will be addressed by President Omar Al Bashir on Saturday, as “a show”.
Read More: https://www.radiodabanga.org/
Number of displaced fleeing to North Darfur capital grows
(Radio Dabanga) Thousands of people who fled from villages in El Fasher locality, North Darfur, which were burned and looted by militias seven days ago, have been arriving in Shagra area, west of El Fasher city. The newly displaced families have found shelter in Hillet Abu Bakr, Hillet Mura, and Hillet Musa in Shagra area. Witnesses told Radio Dabanga that the arrivals have lost all of their possessions during the attack and looting by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). “They were forced out of their houses, and now live in a bad humanitarian situation.”
Read More: https://www.radiodabanga.org/
UN warns conditions in South Sudan could worsen
(RTE) Over one million people in South Sudan have been forced from their homes during more than three months of ongoing fighting, with conditions continuing to worsen, the United Nations has warned. “In the 100 days since the start of the conflict in South Sudan, over one million people have fled their homes,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report. Over 800,000 are displaced inside South Sudan, while almost 255,000 have fled as refugees to neighbouring countries of Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Sudan, the UN said. Tens of thousands of civilians are sheltering inside UN peacekeeping bases fearing revenge attacks, crammed into tiny areas in increasingly squalid conditions due to heavy rains.
Read More: http://www.rte.ie/