SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: DW - Sudan siege bears hallmarks of brutal Darfur war,

19/6/2024: DW - Sudan siege bears hallmarks of brutal Darfur war, by Jennifer Holleis

 DW’s feature piece on the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) siege on al-Fashir spoke to analysts and individuals personally impacted.

Resident Taj-Alseer Ahamed said “we don't have money to buy food or water. We don't know where our relatives are. We cannot sleep and have to hide from bullets or missiles day and night”.

Hamid Adam showed DW the remains of this house and said: “this is not just artillery fire, this was a rocket strong enough to destroy mountains but should never be used against human beings."

Hager Ali, a researcher at the German think-tank GIGA Institute for Global and Area Studies, told DW events in Al-Fashir are best described as “scorched earth strategy,” with the destruction of important agricultural goods, razing villages, the systematic killing of non-Arab minorities, widespread sexual violence against women, aiming to ensure that " even when you retreat, your enemy has absolutely nothing to gain”.

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: New York Times - Why Darfur Again Faces the Risk of Ethnic Slaughter

19/6/2024: New York Times - Why Darfur Again Faces the Risk of Ethnic Slaughter

New York Times warn that if al-Fashir the falls, what had largely been a military clash could descend into ethnic slaughter like the violence Darfur endured in the early 2000s, when the Janjaweed, who are Arab, set upon ethnic Africans,” with the UN estimating that 300,000 were killed in the genocide.

NYT note that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seizing of the main highway “has largely cut off food” to a Darfur region “already grappling with famine,” with a child dying of malnutrition every two hours at a nearby displacement camp.

Medical care is also in short supply in Al-Fashir with hospitals forced to close. The road out is “filled with danger,” with temperatures rising to over 49 celsius, women reporting being sexually assaulted and people finding that food and medicine are in short supply when reaching their destinations.

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Human Rights Watch - Sudan: Unlawful Attacks on Civilians, Infrastructure

19/6/2024: Human Rights Watch - Sudan: Unlawful Attacks on Civilians, Infrastructure

Mohamed Osman, research for Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) Africa division, called on the UN and AU leadership to examine all possible options and deploy a civilian protection mission to Al-Fashir, with governments requested to support the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor’s investigation into apparent war crimes and other atrocities in Darfur.

The UN Security Council were also called upon to act on findings of the UN Panel of Experts on Darfur, including on violations of the UN arms embargo by other countries, notably the United Arab Emirates.

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Slate - Nine Million People Have Fled. Up to 150,000 Are Dead. No One Is Talking About It

19/6/2024: Slate - Nine Million People Have Fled. Up to 150,000 Are Dead. No One Is Talking About It, by Aymann Ismail

Slate interviewed Mohanad Elbalal, the co-founder of Khartoum Aid Kitchen, a crowdfunded campaign to support community kitchens in Sudan.

Elbalal attributed the unfolding famine to lack of income and security and the Rapid Support militia (RSF) looting aid.

Elbalal added that the army “doesn’t have an issue” with their kitchens, but the issue in RSF territory is that many community activists who would lead volunteer work are being detained or killed.

Elbalal also said “there’s a feeling that prejudices – [that this is just Africans killing Africans] might lead people to care less” about Sudan. 

While the Paris conference pledged two billion euros, “there’s a difference between a pledge and actual donations arriving,” Elbalal noted, with only 15.8% of the $2.4 billion needed for Sudan’s humanitarian plan funded.

Elbalal added that pressure on the international community to meet the pledges “would go a long way to actually helping Sudanese people”

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Amnesty International - Egypt: Authorities must end campaign of mass arrests and forced returns of Sudanese refugees

19/6/2024: Amnesty International - Egypt: Authorities must end campaign of mass arrests and forced returns of Sudanese refugees

Amnesty International call for Egyptian authorities to immediately cease the mass arbitrary arrests and unlawful deportations of Sudanese refugees who had crossed the border into Egypt seeking refuge from the conflict in Sudan.

Amnesty had recently published a report entitled, “Handcuffed like dangerous criminals”: Arbitrary detention and forced returns of Sudanese refugees in Egypt,

which reveals how Sudanese refugees are rounded up and unlawfully deported to Sudan without due process or opportunity to claim asylum in flagrant violation of international law.

Around 500,000 Sudanese refugees are estimated to have fled to Egypt after the armed conflict erupted in Sudan in April 2023. However, in the following month, the Egyptian government introduced a visa entry requirement for all Sudanese nationals, leaving those fleeing with little choice but to escape through irregular border crossings.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Reuters - Egypt unlawfully deported Sudanese refugees, rights group says

19/6/2024: Reuters - Egypt unlawfully deported Sudanese refugees, rights group says

Reuters report that Egypt has carried out mass arrests and unlawful deportations of thousands of refugees fleeing the war in Sudan, Amnesty International said in a report.

More than 500,000 people, or about 24% of the total who have left Sudan, have crossed to Egypt, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Arrivals led to occasional tensions, with some Egyptians blaming Sudanese and other foreigners for pushing up rental prices, and Egyptian TV commentators citing the "burden" of millions of migrants at a time of high inflation and economic pressures.

After Egypt's foreign currency shortage worsened last year many Africans arrested for not having valid papers were held in squalid conditions and asked to pay fees in dollars to avoid deportation, according to lawyers and witnesses.

European states see Egypt as playing an important role in preventing mass migration across the Mediterranean.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Guardian - EU-funded Egyptian forces ‘rounding up and deporting Sudanese refugees’

19/6/2024: Guardian - EU-funded Egyptian forces ‘rounding up and deporting Sudanese refugees’, by Ruth Michaelson

The Guardian report that Egyptian authorities have used EU-funded security forces in a campaign of mass arrests and forcible deportations against refugees from the Sudan war, according to Amnesty International.

Amnesty found that Egypt “forcibly returned an estimated 800 Sudanese detainees between January and March 2024, who were all denied the possibility to claim asylum”.

Amnesty said a campaign of mass arrests in Cairo and neighbouring Giza, where police have “conducted mass stops and identity checks targeting black individuals, spreading fear within the refugee community”.

Amnesty documented 14 arrests of refugees from public hospitals in Aswan. People were held in makeshift detention facilities run by Egyptian border guards, a force that has received extensive EU funding.

Refugees, including at least 11 children and their mothers, were taken to filthy warehouses or stables at military sites

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Sudan Tribune - Aerial, artillery strikes claim 18 lives in El Fasher and Kutum of North Darfur

19/6/2024: Sudan Tribune - Aerial, artillery strikes claim 18 lives in El Fasher and Kutum of North Darfur

Sudan Tribune report that at least 18 were killed in a relentless wave of aerial and artillery bombardments targeting the cities of al-Fasher and Kutum in North Darfur state.

The Abu Shouk camp for displaced people in El Fasher bore the brunt of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) artillery fire, claiming the lives of 14 and leaving 25 injured, including women, children, and the elderly.

In Kutum, northwest of al-Fasher, the SAF conducted extensive airstrikes, resulting in the deaths of four civilians.

The RSF maintained control of Kutum since the early stages of the conflict and has been accused of perpetrating widespread human rights abuses against civilians.

The town serves as a strategic staging ground for RSF fighters launching attacks on al-Fasher and houses a medical facility used to treat their wounded.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Sudan Tribune - RSF shell MSF-backed hospital in Omdurman, killing three, injuring 27

19/6/2024: Sudan Tribune - RSF shell MSF-backed hospital in Omdurman, killing three, injuring 27

Sudan Tribune report that Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced the death of three people, including a volunteer, and the injury of 27 others following intense artillery shelling by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that struck al-Naw Hospital in Omdurman.

The hospital was previously targeted by the RSF who in recent weeks escalated military operations in areas of northern Omdurman’s Karari locality, entirely under the control of the Sudanese army, continuing to shell civilian sites in the Al-Thawra neighbourhoods. Karari had received numerous displaced individuals from Omdurman and Bahri.

The pro-democracy Ghadboun group mourned the loss of Sharaf Abu Al-Majd, who was killed in the attack on Al Nao Hospital. The young man was known for his active participation in anti-military coup protests and had worked as a volunteer at the hospital for months, providing treatment and assistance to patients.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: AFP – Sudan wheat harvest waits to rot as hunger crisis looms

19/6/2022: AFP – Sudan wheat harvest waits to rot as hunger crisis looms

Amid Sudan’s acute food insecurity, AFP report that Sudanese farmers fear that their wheat harvest will rot in the absence of buyers, with agricultural expert Abdulkarim Omar noting that wheat can rot within three months if stored inadequately.

Thousands of farmers cultivated wheat as part of Sudan’s Al-Gezira agricultural scheme after the government promised to buy it at $75 per sack, with a farmer telling AFP that they did not need adequate storage places because the government bought their entire harvest.

However, Sudan’s agricultural bank – which buys the harvests - has been unable to receive money from the finance ministry or central bank owing to a worsening economic crisis after the October military coup.

Traders have offered to buy the wheat at prices that barely cover production costs leaving farmers will little incentive to cultivate wheat, notes Omar Marzouk, the governor of the Al-Gezira scheme.

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa - Darfur still stands between the spread of COVID-19, organized violence, and the absence of rule of law

19/6/2020: Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa - Darfur still stands between the spread of COVID-19, organized violence, and the absence of rule of law

 On the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) called for an “inclusive, just, and fair approach to peacebuilding” in Darfur.

 SIHA call for the Sudanese government to:

• Invest in justice and law enforcement infrastructure and survivor support services.

•   Establish Darfur civilian regional governments and local legislative councils, and supporting them in “setting clear security arrangements and disarmament programmes with firm deadlines.”

• Develop internal justice mechanisms inclusive of Darfuri civil society, particularly women and youth, and compliant with reparations demands from sexual violence survivors.

• Ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, and abide by Resolution 1325.

 SIHA reported that rapes of displaced women in el-Fasher, north Darfur, have risen by 50%.

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Radio Dabanga - Darfur displaced: ‘Arms collection an excuse to dismantle camps’

19/6/2020: Radio Dabanga - Darfur displaced: ‘Arms collection an excuse to dismantle camps’

 Radio Dabanga report that, according to Yagoub Abdallah Furi, a representative of the general coordination of Darfur camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), a weapon collections campaign conducted by South Darfur authorities, the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are a “justification for dismantling the camps that stand as witness to the horrors of [al-Bashir’s] regime [which] gives government militias the greenlight to burn…camps in Darfur.”

 Furi said that South Darfur (military) governor Major General Hashim Khaled and the government “are fully aware the weapons are [only] in the hands of their tribal militias, who protect them and cover-up their crimes,” calling for militias to be disarmed. 

 Furi also said the UN-AU Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) and the government would be “responsible for the consequences of any hostile action by Khaled or any other government party,” with UNAMID “the only force entrusted with protecting and supervising the camps.”

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Radio Dabanga - Darfur lawyers urge leaders to adopt ‘community solutions for societal recovery’

19/6/2020: Radio Dabanga - Darfur lawyers urge leaders to adopt ‘community solutions for societal recovery’

 Radio Dabanga reports that the Darfur Bar Association (DBA) calls on native administration leaders in Nyala, South Darfur’s capital “to adopt and produce community solutions that enhance, serve, and strengthen human relations and social cohesion”, following the killing of two in Kalma camp.

 The DBA called on community leaders to adopt and produce community solutions that include “learning lessons in a way that enhances, serves, and strengthens human relations and social cohesion,” adding that the community solutions “will encourage society to move past the hateful past of the repulsive regime and establish foundations for societal recovery.”

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Financial Times - The fight to control Africa's digital revolution

19/6/19: Financial Times  – The fight to control Africa’s digital revolution, by David Pilling

 FT Africa editor David Pilling argues that the Sudan internet blackout reflects a wider pattern of African restrictions on online activism, arguing that governments in Africa have a massive opportunity to use the digital revolution to improve the lives of their citizens, but “too many are using it against them”

 Pilling notes the importance of the internet as a reliable source of information amid heavily controlled print media, but also highlights that the internet is also a source of “rumour and deception,” leading Ugandan and Tanzanian authorities to enact social media taxes.

 Pilling notes Africa’s technological reliance on China, with African governments, such as Zimbabwe, reportedly enlisting the services of Chinese surveillance companies to spy on their citizens. However, there are also allegations that China has “bugged” the African Union’s headquarters.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Radio Dabanga - Sudanese Professionals Association meets UAE, Egypt, EU ambassadors

19/6/19: Radio Dabanga- Sudanese Professionals Association meets UAE, Egypt, EU ambassadors

 Radio Dabanga reports that representatives of the Sudanese Professions Association (SPA) have held meetings with the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and the European Union in recent days, in order to discuss the current situation in Sudan.

 The SPA affirmed on Wednesday that the demands of the Alliance for Freedom and Change were a key topic of discussion at the meetings. The demands include the calling for an independent investigation into the June 3 massacre, return of internet services, return of military forces to their barracks and an end to the security restrictions and the media blackout.

The UAE ambassador claimed to support the some of the demands called for by the AFC and said that they support any agreement reached by the Sudanese, albeit stressing that their position was ‘non-biased’. 

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: AP - ICC prosecutor: Sudan authorities should handover ex-leader

19/6/19: AP - ICC prosecutor: Sudan authorities should handover ex-leader, by Edith M. Lederer

 AP reports that Fatou Bensouda, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, urged Sudan’s transitional authorities on Wednesday to hand over or prosecute ousted President Omar Al Bashir and four others for alleged war crimes in Darfur.

 Bensouda told the UN Security Council that she is ready to work with authorities “to ensure that the Darfur suspects face independent and impartial justice” either at the ICC in The Hague, Netherlands, or in Sudan if its court meets international standards.

 Bensouda said she didn’t underestimate “the complexity and fluidity of the events unfolding in Sudan,” but declared it was now time to act and ensure that the ICC suspects face justice.

SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Multiple sources - Al Burhan says military is ready to negotiate with opposition

19/6/19: Multiple sources - Al Burhan says military is ready to negotiate with opposition

• Reuters, by Khalid Abdelaziz

• AP, by Hussein Malla and Samy Magdy

The head of Sudan’s ruling military council, Abdulfattah Al Burhan, said the military was ready to meet the Declaration of Freedom and Change (DFC) opposition alliance to negotiate the Sudan’s transition towards democracy, after talks collapsed following the deadly dispersal of a protest sit-in on June 3.

 Al Burhan said “we do not deny [the DFC] role in the uprising or in the popular revolution, their leadership of the masses.”

 He added that the alliance should return to talks without preconditions, and that the solution “solution must be satisfactory for all the Sudanese people…we will not accept any solution that excludes any faction of the Sudanese people.”