SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Ayin Network - Darfur’s recruitment race: Sudan’s army and Rapid Support Forces compete for influence

26/3/2023: Ayin Network - Darfur’s recruitment race: Sudan’s army and Rapid Support Forces compete for influence

Ayin Network report that the Sudanese army and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have activated large-scale military recruitment operations in Darfur, “in what appears an open race to recruit certain tribal groups into their ranks.”

The campaign “exclusively targets Arab nomadic communities”, with Ayin’s civil and military sources saying that the army seeks to weaken the RSF by recruiting youth from its core ethnic base of Arab tribes such as the Riziegat and Al-Ta’aisha.

Ayin’s sources also allege that the army has revived the Border Guards, a paramilitary force consisting of Darfur-based Arab tribal militias originally set up under former president Omar al-Bashir in 2003 but disbanded in 2017.

The army and RSF’s recruitment drive in Darfur has also disincentivised other armed groups from disarmament, including the Sudan Liberation Movement of Minni Minnawi, a Juba peace agreement signatory.

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies - A female human rights defender faces trial for online publication of “false news” under the Cybercrimes Act, 2018

26/3/2021: African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies - A female human rights defender faces trial for online publication of “false news” under the Cybercrimes Act, 2018

The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) call for Sudanese authorities to “respect and guarantee the right to freedom of expression as provided for in article 56 of the 2018 Constitutional Declaration and international and regional human rights treaties that Sudan is a state party to,” with law enforcement agencies to be instructed to cease harassing and intimidating individuals exercising their rights legitimately. 

ACJPS also call for the decriminalisation of “false news” and proposes reforms adhering to regional and international standards to which Sudan has committed: the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 

ACJPS add that the Cybercrimes Act was designed by al-Bashir’s regime to limit the freedom of activists, bloggers, and media professionals, and that it was amended in 2020 to increase terms of imprisonment for various penalties including the online publication of false news.

SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Radio Dabanga - Expert: ‘Coronavirus will exacerbate the economic crisis in Sudan’

26/3/2020: Radio Dabanga - Expert: ‘Coronavirus will exacerbate the economic crisis in Sudan’

 Professor Hasan Bashir, economist and director of the Red Sea University, told Radio Dabanga that the coronavirus pandemic will seriously affect the most vulnerable people in Sudan, calling on the government to take measures to financially support the large informal sector.

 “The most affected [by the curfew] are those who depend on their day-to-day income. These represent a very large segment of the Sudanese people,” Bashir said, citing food and beverage vendors. Bashir also warned that the curfew will negatively impact the health services, as most clinics and doctors operate in the evening.

 Bashir further states that the “entire non-regulated sector” across Sudan, including transport, gold and other export products “that constitute a pillar of the Sudanese economy,” will be hit.

 Bashir called on the Sudanese people, especially youth activists and neighbourhood resistance committees to expand the scope of home delivery services, especially medicines.

SUDAN POLITICAL ALERT: Norwegian Refugee Council - A new Sudan faces corona with little support

26/3/2020: Norwegian Refugee Council - A new Sudan faces corona with little support

 Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), calls for the international community to help Sudan’s transitional government “cement positive change and defend vulnerable communities from the unfolding health crisis,” warning that a historical opportunity is being lost “in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic.”

 With Sudan’s aid appeal for 2020 stated to only receive as little as 13% of funding, Egeland warns that Sudan’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism “could aggravate the current crisis, potentially preventing the flow of much-needed funding.”

 Egeland also warns that coronavirus will “decimate crowded displacement camps, slums and community centres,” concluding that global inaction would “drive Sudan into chaos again.”