SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Sudan Tribune - Sudan is not looking for war against Ethiopia, minister says

15/1/2021: Sudan Tribune - Sudan is not looking for war against Ethiopia, minister says

 Sudan Tribune reports the Information Minister Faisal Mohammed Salih said that Sudan is not looking for a war against Ethiopia, but it will not hesitate to defend its citizens and territory.

 He added that the redeployment of the armed forces and control of Sudanese territory on the eastern borders is a normal measure to protect the borders and the security of citizens and their agricultural lands.

 Saleh further stressed that there is no border dispute with Ethiopia adding that the issue has been resolved through the international agreements signed by the countries.

He also referenced the training and armament of Ethiopian forces that attack the Sudanese army, stressing they are not "armed militias or farmers", in “an allusion to the Fano paramilitary force who are [sponsored] by the Amhara region.”

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Multiple sources - No-fly zone over Sudan-Ethiopia border area begins

15/1/2020: Multiple sources - No-fly zone over Sudan-Ethiopia border area begins

• Radio Dabanga

• Sudan Tribune

 The Sudanese Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) has declared the closure of airspace over al-Fashaga border area in the eastern Sudan region of al-Gadarif, after the incursion of an Ethiopian fighter plane. Aeroplanes will not be allowed to fly above al-Fashaga under an altitude of 29,000 feet. The restriction is effective from January 14 to April 11.

 Sudan Tribune also reported that foreign minister Omar Gamraldin rejected calls for mediation from the Ethiopian government. "Sudan does not seek any mediation with Ethiopia, because it is our borders and our land, (...) We also do not admit that we are in a border dispute to resort to arbitration, " he stressed.

 "When Ethiopia calls the border ’disputed’, this is a false description that finds no legal basis in the international law,’ he added.

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: al-Mashhad – Former ambassador: Successive governments did not have a strategy to preserve the borders

15/1/2020: al-Mashhad – Former ambassador: Successive governments did not have a strategy to preserve the borders

 Osman Nafi’, the former Sudanese ambassador to Ethiopia, said that successive Sudanese governments lacked a strategy to maintain the border with Ethiopia through a security or population presence.

He attributed Ethiopian expansion to state governors acting out of personal rather than national loyalties in their dealings with Ethiopians.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Sudan Tribune - Only 657 Sudanese troops are in Yemen: military spokesperson

15/1/2020: Sudan Tribune - Only 657 Sudanese troops are in Yemen: military spokesperson  

Sudan Tribune reports that Sudan has reduced its troops deployed in Yemen to 657 hundreds soldiers, according to Brigadier General Jamal Adam ,the spokesperson of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

"Even the command of the Sudanese forces [in Yemen] returned to Khartoum," Adam told the Turkish news agency Anadolu.

The peace negotiations with the Houthi encouraged the Saudi-led coalition to scale down its operations in Yemen.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Sudan Tribune - U.S. urges Sudan to pay compensations before to remove it from terror list

15/1/2020: Sudan Tribune - U.S. urges Sudan to pay compensations before to remove it from terror list

Sudan Tribune reports that the US has urged Sudan to pay financial compensation to family members of people killed in militant attacks, before Sudan can be removed from the US list of State Sponsors of Terrorism.

US State Department Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said that a meeting between Sudanese foreign minister Asma Abdallah and US under-secretary for political affairs David Hale, saw the latter underscore that compensation for victims of terrorism is a priority for the US government.

Ortagus added that the matter is a Sudanese state responsibility, with negotiations focusing on the sum of compensation and protecting Sudan from future lawsuits.

On 13 January 2020, the US Supreme Court declined a Sudanese appeal on the payment of $3.8 billion in damages to family members of people killed or injured in al Qaeda’s bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Radio Dabanga - Eastern Sudan conference boycotted by key stakeholders

15/1/2020: Radio Dabanga - Eastern Sudan conference boycotted by key stakeholders

Radio Dabanga reports that several key stakeholders boycotted the eastern Sudan peace conference in Khartoum, due to presence of figures affiliated to Omar al-Bashir’s regime.

Hamrour Hussein, a leading member of the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) in Kassala, said the acting governors of the three eastern Sudanese states monopolised the selection of conference participants.  “Most of the participants are native administration leaders and academics affiliated with the former regime,” Hussein said.

Ramzi Yahya, an FFC leader from El Gedarif cited acting military governors in eastern Sudan “still implementing the agenda of the former regime.”

Five eastern Sudanese tribal leaders from eastern Sudan said they will not participate in the conference, because they consider the selection of the participants “unsuccessful”.

The Red Sea University also announced its withdrawal from the conference and the return of its delegates to Port Sudan, due to “the absence of the real stakeholders”.