SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Amnesty International - Sudan: Promptly investigate protester killings at Fata Borno

14/7/2020: Amnesty International -  Sudan: Promptly investigate protester killings at Fata Borno

 Following the Fata Borno Massacre, the Amnesty International’s Director for East and Southern Africa, Deprose Muchena, calls for Sudanese authorities to “immediately review their security operations in Darfur” to ensure civilian protection “deliberate, unprovoked attacks”.

 Muchena also calls for Sudanese authorities to promptly conduct effective and impartial investigations into protester killings and human rights violations by “the militia group,” and end the “impunity enjoyed by the security forces and armed groups that have inflicted death, pain and suffering on the people of Darfur for 17 years.”

 Muchena also called for authorities to ensure that humanitarian organisations have unrestricted and secure access to Fata Borno, “so they can deliver humanitarian assistance to internally displaced people whose homes were looted and burnt by the armed militia.”

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies - Law Reform Moves Sudan Closer Towards Full Protection for Human Rights of Woman and Minorities

14/7/2020:African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies - Law Reform Moves Sudan Closer Towards Full Protection for Human Rights of Woman and Minorities

Following Sudan’s range of criminal law amendments, African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) calls for Sudan to implement reforms to laws and policies that have allowed torture to continue and perpetrators to operate with impunity.

 ACJPS also call for Sudan to do more to realise the right to justice and reparations of victims, including: abolishing the system of immunities that ensures that perpetrators of torture remained above the law, and replacing it with a system of remedies for victims.

 ACJPS conclude that further reforms should be the result of a consultative process that involves civil society and victims’ groups so that victim’s needs are properly considered.

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Deutsche Welle - Sudan's liberalization for the chosen few

14/7/2020: Deutsche Welle - Sudan's liberalization for the chosen few, by Cristina Krippahl

 DW’s report on Sudan’s criminal law reforms quotes from Magdi el-Gizouli, a fellow at the Rift Valley Institute, who suggests that the changes do not benefit Sudan’s poor and risk polarising Sudanese society.

 El-Gizouli says the changes are welcome “for the lifestyle of a certain segment of the population in Khartoum,” and that the details are “inconvenient” to Sudan’s western donors.

 El-Gizouli argued that the FGM ban risks “criminalising the poor” citing a lack of clarity as to who will be prosecuted, and questioning whether legal means are best in fighting “cultural practice.”

 On laws ending women requiring authorisation from males to travel abroad, El-Gizouli claimed that most women affected by such issues “don't travel through airports.”

 El-Gizouli added that laws making prostitution punishable only if occurring in a brothel fail to protect impoverished women forced into prostitution, and do not apply to wealthy clients who have their own property.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Sudan Tribune - Sudan, Darfur armed groups strike power-sharing deal

14/7/2020: Sudan Tribune - Sudan, Darfur armed groups strike power-sharing deal

 Sudan Tribune report that the government and the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) and Sudan Liberation Movement - Minni Minnawi (SLM-MM) reached a power-sharing deal, paving the way for negotiations on security arrangements.

 40% of representation in Darfur state institutions was allocated to both sides, who will also conduct a "stakeholder identification process" to identify who will receive the remaining 20%. The SRF and the SLM-MM will be represented in three seats in the Sovereign Council, five government portfolios and 75 seats in parliament.

 The parties also agreed to allocate $750 million annually during 10 years to finance the Darfur peace deal, alongside an investment fund for rehabilitation and development projects.

 Regarding security arrangements, the government wants integrate rebels into the army immediately, whereas the SRF wants the formation of joint forces to protect displaced people and for the arrangements to include the national army’s reorganisation process.

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Financial Times - Letter: Sudan’s civilian rulers must demand real powers

14/7/2020: Financial Times - Letter: Sudan’s civilian rulers must demand real powers

 Financial Times reader Mohamed El Mustafa Hammad calls for Sudan’s civilian administration to demand to take on the “real role of government” in order to address its revolutionary aims “in earnest.”

 With the foreign and finance ministries said to be unable to set foreign policy or bring state-owned companies under their control respectively, Hammad argues that the civilian government needs “a more assertive stance on assuming powers, as the public has demanded.”

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Multiple sources – Protester ‘shot dead’ in Sennar

14/7/19: Multiple sources – Protester ‘shot dead’ in Sennar

• BBC

• AFP

• Reuters

 “The spirit of the martyr Anwar Hassan Idris was lifted in the city of al-Suki, Sennar state, after he was wounded by a bullet to the head by the Janjaweed militia,” the opposition-linked Sudan Doctors’ Committee said in a statement.

 The incident occurred when the residents of al-Suku gathered outside an office of the National Intelligence and Security Service to demand that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), labelled the Janjaweed by Sudanese protesters, leave their town.

 "RSF members deployed and initially started shooting in the air but later they opened fire at residents, killing a man and wounding several other people," said a witness, who remained anonymous for security reasons.

RSF commander Himedti is the deputy chief of Sudan's ruling military council that seized power in April. Himedti denies that the RSF was responsible for the June 3 massacre.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: AP - Sudan protesters delay signing deal with army for 2nd time

14/7/19: AP - Sudan protesters delay signing deal with army for 2nd time, by Samy Magdy

 The Declaration of Freedom and Change postponed a scheduled meeting with the country’s ruling generals for a second time on Sunday, saying “further consultations” were needed before they would sign a power-sharing deal with the military, reports AP.

 The DFC leaders said the meeting was pushed back to Tuesday. “We are still debating within the DFC over the constitutional document. We need to draft out notes in legal form before the meeting,” Mohammed Yousef Al Mustafa, a spokesman for the Sudanese Professionals’ Association, which has spearheaded the protests and initiated the DFC coalition.

 The Sudanese Communist party, which is part of the DFC, said it rejected the power-sharing agreement because it does not include an international investigation into the crackdown and keeps paramilitary forces in existence.

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Washington Post - If there is to be any peace in Sudan, there must be reckoning for the Darfur genocide

14/7/19: Washington Post - If there is to be any peace in Sudan, there must be reckoning for the Darfur genocide

 In a letter to the Washington Post’s editors, Ryan Brenner calls for the international community to pressure the military council and the planned sovereign council to demonstrate their commitment to Sudanese democratic transition by sending former president Omar Al Bashir to face trial at the International Criminal Court for the genocide in Darfur.

 Arguing that peace is not possible without justice and accountability, Brenner argues that the recent power-sharing agreement is “straight out of [Al Bashir’s] playbook,” drawing similarities to the national consultations and the presidential elections, which were judged to temporarily satisfy the international community before the regime “endlessly” extended its power.