SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Radio Dabanga - Sudan anti-corruption committee orders criminal proceedings

12/2/2021: Radio Dabanga - Sudan anti-corruption committee orders criminal proceedings

 Radio Dabanga report that the committee responsible for dismantling the remnants of al-Bashir’s regime – the Empowerment Elimination, Anti-Corruption, and Funds Recovery Committee said it has gathered sufficient information about the activities of members of the regime.

The Committee issued a directive to its state branches to take criminal procedures via the Public Prosecution according to the Empowerment Elimination 2019 Act amended 2020, Counter-Terrorism and Money Laundering 2014 Act and the Criminal Code 1991 amended 2020. According to the statement, the information relates to acts of burning, robbing, and terrorising unarmed people.

Committee deputy Mohamed al-Faki said: “people are still waiting for large files inherited from the defunct regime [to be made public]”.

 Empowerment (tamkin) is the term with which the ousted government of Omar Al Bashir supported its affiliates in state affairs by granting them far-going privileges, including government functions and the setting-up of various companies.

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Financial Times - Sudan’s revolutionaries need help to avoid the ‘Myanmar trap’

12/2/2020: Financial Times – Sudan’s revolutionaries need help to avoid the ‘Myanmar trap’, by David Pilling

 David Pilling calls for external encouragement and support for Sudanese institutions in order to avert Sudan taking the path of Egypt or Myanmar, where revolutions that ousted one military regime saw it replaced by another.

 The obstacles to Sudan’s democratic transition highlighted by Pilling include the absence of an “obvious champion in Washington” under the US presidency of Donald Trump, that Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states “currently propping up Sudan” lack an “interest in seeing a vibrant democracy take hold,” and that the Sudanese military and Islamists are “waiting for their chance” to “crush” the revolution.

 Thus, Pilling writes that Sudan requires external financial help for the democratic transition to survive, and for Sudan to shift its perception among “a whole generation of western officials” away from associations with “genocide and terrorism.”

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Foreign Policy - Sudan Is Remaking Its Relationship With the Rest of the World

12/2/2020: Foreign Policy - Sudan Is Remaking Its Relationship With the Rest of the World, by Cameron Hudson

 Former US diplomat Cameron Hudson argues that the Sudanese military shares the government’s desire to see Sudan reintegrated into the international community – citing moves to handover Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the “radical” expansion of UN operations in Sudan – “both of which seem to run counter to the military’s interests.”

 Hudson attributes the cooperation between military and civilian leaders to the military’s attempts to undermine Himedti and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), “the single most powerful force [in Sudan]” and “a threat to the military’s traditional role.”

 With growing ICC-Sudan relations a “direct threat” to Himedti given his past leadership of the Janjaweed militia accused of abuses in Darfur, Hudson concludes that military leaders may be playing the strategic long game that “marginalises the RSF and secures their survival under a new political dispensation.”

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Bloomberg - Sending Sudan’s Bashir to The Hague Will Make Tyrants Tremble

12/2/2020: Bloomberg - Sending Sudan’s Bashir to The Hague Will Make Tyrants Tremble, by Bobby Ghosh

 Bloomberg columnist Bobby Ghosh examines the uncertainty behind the prospect of Omar al-Bashir facing justice before the International Criminal Court.

 Ghosh raises the possibility of a potential special Sudanese court for Darfur crimes getting the first right of refusal to try al-Bashir. Ghosh adds that the Sudanese sovereign council may opt to pursue al-Bashir for numerous other crimes committed during his presidency –“keeping him in Sudan for months, even years.”

 Ghosh also raises the prospect of al-Bashir’s loyalists in the military and Islamist groups resisting al-Bashir’s extradition to the ICC. Furthermore, Ghosh argues that Sudan’s political balance may result in civilian politicians agreeing to a compromise that keeps al-Bashir away from the ICC in exchange for speedier political reforms.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Reuters - Fuel shortages put squeeze on Sudan's transitional government

12/2/2020: Reuters - Fuel shortages put squeeze on Sudan's transitional government, by Khali Abdelaziz and Aidan Lewis

Reuters report that fuel shortages have left motorists in Sudan skipping work to queue for petrol and forced the transitional government to introduce a rationing system.

 With civilians spending entire days in queues that span several miles in search of both bread and fuel, the shortages piled more pressure on the civilian government as it struggles to deliver improvements.

 Reuters note that officials are yet to negotiate a plan for subsidy reform and overcome technical challenges to administer the payment, despite talking about moving towards cash transfers.

 Officials reportedly attribute the issues to a broken refinery pipeline. Reuters add that imports and distribution of fuel have been restricted by foreign currency shortages and a lack of road transport and port capacity.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Reuters - Sudan to raise price of some petrol from mid February -ministry source

12/2/2020: Reuters - Sudan to raise price of some petrol from mid February -ministry source

Reuters report that Sudan will raise the price of fuel sold commercially at some petrol stations to 28 Sudanese pounds per liter from six Sudanese pounds from mid-February, a source in Sudan’s oil ministry revealed.

Fuel sold at the new price will still be subsidized at 50% of its cost by the government, the source said, and the six-pound price will continue to be offered, and subject to rationing, alongside the new price.

 The new price would allow people prepared to pay more to buy petrol without queueing, and to buy larger quantities of petrol when rationing is in place.