SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: al-Sudani – If the government did it

1/8/2021: al-Sudani – If the government did it, by Dr. Abdullatif al-Booni

Economic writer Dr. Abdellatif al-Booni calls for the government to restrict inflation with a limited reduction in fuel prices - potentially helped by an international drop in fuel prices alongside foreign grants or loans – thereby reducing the prices of other commodities.  

Al-Booni, however, argues that the government’s economic liberalisation policy - as reflected in currency flotation and fuel subsidy lifting - is successful, with the “transport crisis turning from scarcity and high cost to just high cost, [and] the farming crisis turning from scarcity in fuel to just a high price of fuel.”

Al-Booni cites the drop in gasoline prices, which he attributes to the unification of gasoline prices for agriculture and transport industries, thus reducing the black market gasoline trading blamed for the transport crisis. Al-Booni also credits government policy for reducing traffic, thereby reducing fuel consumption, as drivers previously burned “cheap subsidised fuel for nothing”.

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: African Arguments - Cash and contradictions: On the limits of Middle Eastern influence in Sudan

1/8/19: African Arguments - Cash and contradictions: On the limits of Middle Eastern influence in Sudan, by Alex de Waal

 Alex de Waal highlights various factors that are not going the way of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, despite their heavy involvement in Sudan.

 The Gulf nations were said to be taken aback by the resilience of Sudanese protesters after the June 3 massacre.

 De Waal also highlights splits between the Arab troika of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt. The UAE’s abrupt withdrawal from Yemen, uncoordinated with Saudi Arabia, suggests that its foreign policy is “opportunistic,” whereas Egypt shares with the Sudanese army a distrust of Saudi-Emirati backed Himedti and his RSF. In addition, the omission of the Arab troika’s enemy – Qatar – from Sudan’s peace process “reveals the lack of common strategy.”

 De Waal also foresees Saudi and UAE’s economic advisers pressuring their rulers to stop investing into Sudan’s central bank, given that Himedti’s use of it as an instrument of political finance continues to worsen Sudan’s economic crisis.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Multiple sources – Sudan army blames bank security for killing children at protest

1/8/19: Multiple sources – Sudan army blames bank security for killing children at protest

• Independent

• Reuters

The head of the transitional military council’s security committee, Jalalaldin Omar Ibrahim, blamed the killing of student protesters in Al Obeid on a bank’s security force.

 However, the Sudan Doctors Committee has attributed the deaths to security forces, with residents saying  the teenagers were rallying against fuel and bread shortages.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Multiple sources – Sudanese Communist Party quits talks on power transfer in Sudan

1/8/19: Multiple sources – Sudanese Communist Party quits talks on power transfer in Sudan

• Radio Dabanga

• Sudan Tribune

 Sudanese Communist Party Secretary-General Mohamed El Khateeb announced that the party has withdrawn from power-sharing negotiations with the military junta.

 El Khateeb said that the political and constitutional power-sharing documents “stipulate the complete hegemony of the junta over the Sovereign Council,” citing the junta’s power to appoint the Ministers of Defence and the Interior to rule over Sudan’s security apparatus, and that the composition of the army will be changed by adding militias.

 El Khateeb also said the the mission of the investigation report into the June 3 massacre, “was to blur the facts, and to attribute the crimes to unknown armed men and absolve the real perpetrators,”reiterating calls for an independent commission of inquiry under international and regional supervision.

 He also called for the restructuring of the security apparatus, including the dismantling of the National Intelligence and Security Service and all government militias.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Multiple sources – Sudan activists: 4 shot dead amid marches against violence

1/8/19: Multiple sources – Sudan activists: 4 shot dead amid marches against violence

• AP, by Noha Elhennawy

• Reuters, by Khalid Abdelaziz and Ahmed Tolba

• AFP

 The Sudan Doctors’ Committee said that at least four Sudanese demonstrators were shot dead by live ammunition on Thursday amid mass marches in Khartoum and elsewhere across Sudan denouncing state violence against pro-democracy protesters.

 The marches were held to demand justice for the killing of at least six people — including four students — by security forces during student protests in a central province Monday.

 A statement from protest leaders called the marches a “safety valve” and “our way to bring culprits to justice, avenge martyrs and to ensure the transfer of power to an interim civilian government.” The group stressed the peaceful nature of the rallies, but warned that armed infiltrators might slip in among the crowd to instigate violence.

 Meanwhile, the military council blamed said it arrested 7 Rapid Support Forces militia who responded in “an isolated manner” for the deaths in Al Obeid on Monday which caused Thursday’s marches.