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Women and children displaced by attacks of the Sudanese government Rapid Support Forces outside caves in rebel-controlled territory in Jebel Marra, Darfur, March 2, 2014. 

© 2015 Adriane Ohanesian Summary

On January 13, 2017, US President Barack Obama issued a presidential executive order that suspended the United States’ comprehensive economic sanctions on Sudan in response to “sustained progress” on several fronts.

However, the order did not identify clear benchmarks for progress or explicitly require improvements to the human rights situation before making the suspension permanent. This is a remarkable oversight considering that human rights concerns were among the factors driving the imposition of sanctions for the last 20 years.

While there may be good reasons to suspend comprehensive economic sanctions, the decision to do so permanently or not should be measured, and reached only after due regard to Sudan’s respect for key and fundamental human rights obligations.  The executive order states that within six months, or by July 2017, the sanctions revocation becomes permanent if Sudan continues to show progress. Yet six months is not sufficient to determine Sudan’s progress on the criteria mentioned in the order, or on improvements to deeper human rights problems.

Sudan has for decades carried out massive and systemic violations of human rights and humanitarian law. After the current government seized power in a military coup in 1989, the US pursued a policy of isolation, in part in response to Sudan’s human rights violations. In 1997, it imposed broad economic sanctions, citing massive human rights abuses committed during the 22-year civil war in the South.  A decade later it imposed additional sanctions, including targeted ones against individuals, for atrocities in Darfur.

The human rights situation has not improved. Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and aligned forces, notably the newly created Rapid Support Forces, have continued to attack civilians in Darfur, Southern Kordofan, and Blue Nile with utter impunity.  National security agents engage in entrenched patterns of repression, targeting civil society leaders, human rights activists, and students for harassment, arbitrary detentions, and torture; restricting civil society organizations and independent media; and using lethal force to disperse protesters, killing hundreds in broad daylight.

Given Sudan’s long, violent, and extensively documented record of abuses against civilians, any assessment of “progress” needs to include an assessment of human rights improvements too. US engagement with Sudan and further normalization of relations should be contingent on meaningful and lasting human rights improvements. These benchmarks for human rights improvements are necessarily broad and informed by international norms, and include:

1. Respect for the right to life, including ending attacks on civilians and indiscriminate bombing;
2. Steps toward accountability for the gravest crimes;
3. Unimpeded humanitarian access to conflict-affected areas;
4. Releasing arbitrarily held detainees;
5. Ending excessive force against peaceful protesters;
6. Greater respect for freedoms of assembly, association, and expression;
7. Allowing human rights monitoring and cooperation with international institutions;
8. Carrying out essential reforms to the National Security Act and other key legislation. 

Human Rights Watch believes the US government should: defer evaluation of Sudan’s progress to a later date, and continue to monitor the broader set of human rights benchmarks; revise and update its Sudan sanctions policy; enforce and impose additional individual targeted sanctions against those deemed responsible for serious abuses; consider new individual sanctions in light of evidence that has surfaced in recent years; and appoint a special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan,as under the two previous administrations.

I.   Background Civil Wars and Political Repression

Violence and political repression have marred much of the last three decades in Sudan.  After seizing power by military coup in 1989, the National Islamic Front (NIF) embarked on comprehensive purges of the judiciary, civil service, army, and security forces; banned all political parties, cultural, and social associations; and imposed a countrywide state of emergency.[1] Led by Hassan al-Turabi, the NIF espoused a strict Islamist ideology, and was known for highly repressive tactics, including torture and arbitrary detentions in secret, illegal security-run prisons knowns as “ghost houses.”[2]

Under this government, Sudan continued its extremely abusive civil war, ongoing since 1983, against Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) rebels in Southern Sudan and in the Nuba mountains region of Southern Kordofan.  Government forces and allied militia committed crimes on a massive scale during two decades of war, playing on ethnic divisions and pitting southerners against each other. More than 2 million civilians died, and more than 4 million were displaced internally and to neighboring countries.

By 2002, internationally-brokered peace talks, hosted by Kenya, led to several important agreements, including a ceasefire in the Nuba Mountains and agreement to cease attacking civilians, followed by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005. The government and SPLM/A agreed to a six-year transitional period during which a national unity government would implement the peace deal. By 2011, southerners would vote in a referendum for or against independence.

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Fighters of the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces in captured vehicles celebrate a victory against the rebel Justice and Equality Movement, Goz Dango, South Darfur, April 28, 2015. 

© 2015 Reuters

The CPA did not address the crisis in Darfur, where starting in 2003 the Sudanese government and allied militias committed crimes against humanity and war crimes, including sexual violence, as part of its counterinsurgency campaign. The United Nations

estimates that at least 300,000 people were killed in attacks or died of conflict-induced starvation and disease, and more than 2 million people were forced to flee to refugee or internally displaced persons’ camps.[3] The government and rebel groups peace deals did not hold, and conflict between their forces continued alongside inter-communal fighting.

Meanwhile, the parties to the CPA made little progress implementing the agreement, especially pertaining to the arrangements for the border states of Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, and Abyei, the oil-rich region straddling the north-south divide. The delays fueled tensions and sparked clashes between northern and southern forces at Abyei in 2008: SAF soldiers killed civilians and extensively looted and destroyed homes in the town.[4] 

In Southern Kordofan in June 2011, fighting resumed between SAF and former SPLM rebels from the area, now known as SPLM/A-North, and spread to Blue Nile by September. In both states, government forces used abusive tactics, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee to other parts of Sudan or to refugee camps in South Sudan and Ethiopia.[5]

Following South Sudan’s independence, Sudan’s government stripped southerners of citizenship, and conflict-related abuses and political repression continued. Sudan has responded violently to growing civil unrest, often triggered by austerity measures amid worsening economic conditions. It has further empowered the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), and bolstered the army via the creation of the Rapid Support Forces, composed of former militia from Darfur, to conduct highly abusive operations.

International Isolation

Sudan’s international reputation deteriorated after the 1989 coup. NIF’s violent repression of dissent and brutal tactics in the long-running civil war, including abduction and slavery, earned wide condemnation. So did support for Islamic jihadist movements, known terrorists such as Osama bin Laden and Carlos the Jackal, its role in the failed 1995 assassination of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, and links to the Lord’s Resistance Army.[6]  During these years, the United States, United Nations, and European Union imposed various sanctions

1993: Clinton administration isolates the hardline government by vetoing international lending, puts Sudan on the list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

1994: EU follows, imposes arms embargo in response to civil war abuses.[7]  

1996: UN passes a resolution condemning Sudan for refusing to extradite a suspect in the attack on Mubarak, urges countries to limit interactions and entry to Sudanese officials. [8] US closes its embassy in Khartoum.

1997: US imposes a comprehensive economic embargo in response to “support for international terrorism, efforts to destabilize neighboring governments, and the prevalence of human rights violations including slavery and the denial of religious freedom.”[9] The embargo prohibits most business and financial transactions.

1998: US-Sudan relations reach all-time low when, after Al-Qaeda attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, US bombs Sudan’s al-Shifa pharmaceutical plant that it suspects of involvement with the alleged embassy bombers and chemical weapons.[10]

2001-2005:  Bush administration continues isolation policy, intensifies civil war mediation. Some groups lobby successfully for Western oil companies to divest in Sudan.[11] 

2003-2004: Darfur conflict begins in February 2003, continues despite African Union-brokered humanitarian ceasefire deals. By September 2004, Secretary of State Colin Powell says US government believes a genocide has occurred.[12] UN appoints commission of inquiry; finds grave violations of international human rights, humanitarian law.[13]

2005: UN imposes arms embargo on Darfur and individual sanctions on several individuals believed responsible for atrocities.[14] In an unprecedented step, in March 2005 the Security Council refers the situation to the International Criminal Court. It brings charges including of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against President al-Bashir, among others.[15]

2006: US imposes additional sanctions against individuals deemed responsible for crimes in Darfur.[16]

The EU still retains its arms embargo on Sudan and incorporates the UN’s sanctions on Darfur. Its member states implement these bilaterally, but are not precluded from doing business in Sudan.[17]  The African Union, like the UN, has played a key role in responding to Sudan’s crises through mediation, monitoring, and peacekeeping, but has not imposed sanctions.  Several of its member states, primarily Sudan’s neighbors, have had troubled relations with Sudan at various times. During its international isolation, Sudan pursued economic, political, and military trade with allies including Iran, Iraq, China, former Soviet republics, India, and Malaysia.[18]  

Shift Towards Engagement

In a significant about-face in 2015, Sudan expelled several Iranian groups from Khartoum and joined Saudi Arabia’s military operations in Yemen. The United Arab Emirates has provided large loans, and Saudi Arabian businesses have around US$15 million in investments in Sudan.[19] In 2016, Sudan severed diplomatic relations with Iran.[20]   

Sudan has persistently lobbied the US to roll back sanctions, which after renewed diplomatic talks in 2016 resulted in President Obama’s decision to reverse the two-decade policy of comprehensive economic sanctions in January 2017.[21] According to a US Treasury statement, the decision was “the result of sustained progress by the Government of Sudan on several fronts,” including “a marked reduction in offensive military activity, a pledge to maintain a cessation of hostilities in conflict areas in Sudan, steps toward improving humanitarian access throughout Sudan, and cooperation with the United States on counterterrorism and addressing regional conflicts.”[22]

At the same time, Sudan also embarked on new engagements with the EU, which launched a regional program for migration management in sub-Saharan Africa in 2014 via bilateral partnerships with African states and regional projects under the Khartoum Process.[23] In 2016, the EU announced €100 million (approximately $106 million) to Sudan in a “special support measure.”[24]

EU officials now refer publicly to Sudan as a “partner” nation and have highlighted debt relief as a key incentive to offer in exchange for further cooperation.[25] While additional funding has yet to be disbursed, civil society has criticized the EU project for de-prioritizing human rights in favor of meeting migration targets.[26] In recent months, it appears to have emboldened the government’s most abusive actors.[27]

II.      Missing Human Rights Benchmarks

Then-President Obama’s January 13, 2017 order states that permanent revocation of the economic sanctions is conditional on Sudan continuing to display “positive action” on several fronts, but the order lacks any benchmarks or guidance for how the State Department and other agencies should assess Sudan’s progress. Critically, it lacks reference to the need for human rights improvements. The following list of eight benchmarks suggest key areas for improvements and some steps Sudanese authorities could take in each, but is by no means exhaustive.

1. Respect for the Right to Life by Ending Attacks on Civilians and Indiscriminate Bombing

Sudan should cease all unlawful attacks on civilians, and permit independent monitoring and reporting by relevant agencies, including international human rights organizations and independent media.

Sudanese forces have a long record of committing serious violations of the laws of war -- war crimes -- and crimes against humanity during the civil war in southern Sudan, and in conflicts in Darfur, Southern Kordofan, and Blue Nile. Government forces and allied militias have been responsible for killings, rape and sexual violence, and looting and destruction on a massive scale during ground operations. They have also bombed and shelled indiscriminately in civilian areas, especially in rebel-held territories, and targeted clinics and markets in bombing campaigns.

During government offensives in Darfur in 2014-2015, the Rapid Support Forces led massive attacks on hundreds of villages, burning and destroying homes, and committing serious abuses, including rape and killings that may be crimes against humanity.[28] Government forces also launched a major offensive with ground and air forces on Jebel Mara in 2016, destroying hundreds of villages and displacing up to 195,000 people.[29] Amnesty International reported on allegations of chemical weapons use during the offensive.[30]

In Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, attacks since 2011 have killed and maimed hundreds of civilians, damaged dozens of schools and clinics, and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes. In 2016 alone, the government dropped hundreds of bombs that killed at least 45 people in the Nuba mountains, including six children in Heiban on May 1.[31]

In June 2016, the government declared a unilateral ceasefire in Southern Kordofan, which it extended to the end of June 2017 and to all the conflicts. There has been a reduction in clashes and attacks on civilians. But in December 2016, local monitors reported new clashes and government bombing in Nuba Mountains, and in early 2017 media reported government and militia attacks on civilians in the Jebel Mara region of Darfur.[32]  

2. Steps toward Accountability for the Gravest Crimes

Sudan should take steps to cooperate with the ICC, including through the surrender of suspects, and make efforts to genuinely investigate and prosecute those responsible for human rights abuses in conflict and non-conflict settings.

To date, the government has failed to implement key recommendations from the Human Rights Council’s 2007 Group of Experts’ report on Darfur, and its Universal Periodic Reviews (UPRs).[33] Its efforts to prosecute crimes in Darfur and elsewhere have fallen short.[34]  Since 2011, the government has made no tangible progress in providing accountability for crimes committed in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, including the killing of peaceful protesters, ill-treatment and torture of detainees, and other serious abuses.

Sudan continues to refuse any form of cooperation with the only meaningful route at present to criminal accountability for grave crimes committed in Darfur, the International Criminal Court, which has brought charges against al-Bashir and six other individuals for atrocities in Darfur.[35] Suspects are charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur, and remain fugitives from the court.

 3. Allow Sustained, Unimpeded Humanitarian Access to All Conflict-Affected Areas

Sudan should grant sustained and unimpeded access to all conflict locations in Darfur, Southern Kordofan, and Blue Nile and allow independent impartial humanitarian organizations to operate without arbitrary restrictions and onerous bureaucratic requirements. 

The Sudanese government has used a wide range of strategies to delay, limit, and deny access by humanitarian agencies to civilians in need of assistance during the civil war in the south, as well as in Darfur. These include flight bans; denials or massive delays in the processing of travel permits; limitations on the numbers of staff and expulsions of aid officials; and unnecessarily bureaucratic or arbitrary procedures for importing and transporting relief materials. In past decades, these policies have indirectly contributed to the deaths of tens of thousands of people from famine and diseases.[36]

In Darfur, access has been particularly difficult, especially to conflict-affected areas. In 2009, after the ICC announced charges against President al-Bashir, Sudan expelled 10 international aid groups working there and increased restrictions; authorities have since expelled or forced the departure of other humanitarian aid groups and staff and vowed to nationalize aid delivery.

In Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, Sudan’s government has obstructed access for organizations providing essential humanitarian assistance, including food and medical supplies. Many women and girls in the states have had extremely limited, if any, access to reproductive health care. Sudan has denied humanitarian organizations permission to access rebel-held areas from within Sudan. Both the government and the rebel SPLM-N have failed to agree on modalities for delivering impartial aid.[37]   

In December 2016, the government adopted new  regulations to ease movement by aid groups to non-conflict areas, but continues to restrict movement in conflict zones where humanitarian access counts the most.[38] It has allowed one aid organization to operate in government-controlled parts of Jebel Mara in Darfur, and allowed more UN officials in Kadugli and Damazin, but has not improved access to other key government and rebel areas where they have denied international humanitarian groups access.
 

4. Release Arbitrarily Held Detainees, and End Torture and Ill-Treatment

The National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) regularly detains activists, students, lawyers, doctors, community leaders, human rights defenders, and perceived government critics. It often holds detainees for long periods, without access to a lawyer or family visits.[39]   

Many NISS detention centers are in unmarked homes or offices, reminiscent of the “ghost houses” from the 1990s known for torture and ill-treatment. Detainees are beaten, abused,
and some tortured; some female activists have reported being sexually harassed in detention.[40] To date, no NISS officers have been held accountable for abusing detainees.

Sudanese authorities should release arbitrarily held detainees, including those held for their human rights work or perceived opposition to the government. They should issue clear instructions to national security officials to end all forms of ill-treatment and torture, and investigate any allegations that detainees were abused.  They should also allow independent monitors access to detainees in official and secret detention facilities so that improvements may be observed.

5. End Excessive Force against Peaceful Protesters

Sudanese forces continue to use excessive force—beatings, tear-gas, rubber bullets, and live ammunition—to disperse peaceful protests over a range of social grievances. This has resulted in hundreds of deaths and injuries in recent years. In September 2013 alone, more than 170 protesters were killed, mostly by bullets to the head or torso by men believed to be security forces.[41] In 2005, government forces killed 21 protesters in Port Sudan.

Sudan should introduce measures to ensure an end to the use of excessive force against peaceful protesters. Authorities should order security forces to use force only in accordance with UN guidelines and hold to account those responsible for abuse and killings of protesters through impartial investigations and prosecutions in line with international standards.

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Sudanese men at the funeral of Salah Sanhouri, 26, who was killed during protests by security forces on September 27, 2013, pray over his body. Protests over subsidy cuts on fuel and food have been taking place across Sudan since September 2013.

© 2013 AP Photo/Khalil Hamra

6. Respect for Freedoms of Association and Expression

Authorities restrict civil society by targeting activists who criticize the government or support international justice, and by leveling bogus charges of espionage and crimes against the state against them.[42] These practices should end immediately (as above). 

Sudan also controls civil society through bureaucratic restrictions and oversight, including interference by national security officers in organizations’ work. It has repeatedly blocked individuals’ participation in various international events, including Sudan’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in 2016 at the UN Human Rights Council.[43]  

Authorities have long restricted media via censorship, confiscations, and harassing, threatening, and detaining journalists. A key test of commitment to improving on these issues will be whether Sudan stops undue interference and harassment of civil society activists and groups, and NISS censorship of media and interference in editorial choices.

7. Allow Human Rights Monitoring, Cooperate with International Bodies and Institutions

A key test will be whether the government facilitates the African Union/UN Hybrid operation in Darfur -- UNAMID’s -- operations, in particular by granting human rights monitors’ access to conflict-affected areas, and responding positively to requests from other international organizations for access to Sudan.

Sudan has routinely denied UNAMID access to conflict-affected areas so they can effectuate their mandate to protect civilians and monitor human rights. It has denied visas to incoming staff, and closed the human rights section’s liaison office in Khartoum; al-Bashir has ordered the mission to adopt an exit strategy.

Authorities have also expelled other UN officials, including in 2016 the top UN humanitarian.[44]  The government also denied or delayed entry to UN special rapporteurs and diplomatic missions and denied entry to international human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch. It has refused access for UNAMID or the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to follow up and on allegations by Amnesty International that chemical weapons were used in Darfur.

8. Legislative Reforms

Sudan should take steps to reform its most repressive laws. The National Security Act of 2010 allows national security agents to detain individuals for more than four-and-a-half months without judicial review, well beyond the international standard, which requires detainees be brought promptly before a judicial authority. Even in conflict or a state of emergency, ‘prompt’ should be no more than a matter of days.  A patchwork of immunities in various laws shields security forces from prosecution for human rights violations and all such immunities should be repealed. Immunity for the Rapid Support Forces is particularly problematic in light of their documented record of abuse, including sexual violence.[45]

Public order laws—which proscribe private matters such as clothing choice or keeping company with someone from the opposite sex, and carry penalties of fines and flogging— discriminate against females, particularly those from marginalized and non-Muslim communities, and should be reformed.[46] Penalties of lashing, stoning, and other forms of cruel and unusual punishment that international law prohibits should be repealed. 

Other laws restricting civil society and media freedoms should also be revised in line with international standards. Any new constitution should include full protections for human rights including explicitly women’s rights, and Sudan should ratify key international human rights treaties, including the Convention against Torture, the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and the Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances.

 

[1] Human Rights Watch, In the Name of God: Repression Continues in Northern Sudan, vol.6, no.9, November 1994, https://www.hrw.org/reports/1994/sudan/.

[2] Human Rights Watch, Behind the Red Line: Political Repression in Sudan, May 1996, https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1996/Sudan.htm

[3] “Darfur deaths ‘could be 300,000,’” BBC, April 23, 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7361979.stm

[4] Human Rights Watch, Sudan- Abandoning Abyei: Destruction and Displacement, May 2008, July 2008, https://www.hrw.org/report/2008/07/21/abandoning-abyei/destruction-and-d...

[5] Human Rights Watch, Under Siege: Indiscriminate Bombing and Abuse in Sudan’s Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile States, December 2012, https://www.hrw.org/report/2012/12/11/under-siege/indiscriminate-bombing-and-abuses-sudans-southern-kordofan-and-blue 

[6] Human Rights Watch, “Foreign Corporate Complicity, Foreign Government Support,” in Sudan, Oil, and Human Rights (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2003), p. 510.

[7] “EU arms embargo on Sudan,” Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, November 23, 2012, https://www.sipri.org/databases/embargoes/eu_arms_embargoes/sudan

[8] United Nations Security Council, Resolution 1070 (1996), S/RES/1070 (1996), https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N96/214/20/PDF/N9621420.pd...

[9] United States Executive Order 13067—Blocking Sudanese Government Property and Prohibiting Transactions with Sudan, November 1997, https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Documents/13067.pdf

[10] Sudan called for a UN investigation into the bombing, which the US blocked. Robert O. Collins, A History of Modern Sudan, p. 239; Human Rights Watch, Sudan, Oil, and Human Rights, p. 637-8.

[11] Human Rights Watch, Sudan, Oil, and Human Rights, p. 633

[12] “Powell declares genocide in Sudan,” BBC News, September 9, 2004, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/3641820.stm

[13] International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur, Report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur to the United Nations Secretary-General, September 18, 2004,  http://www.un.org/news/dh/sudan/com_inq_darfur.pdf

[14] United Nations Security Council, Resolution 1556 (2004),  S/RES/1556 (2004), http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/Sudan%20SRES1556.pdf; United Nations Security Council, Resolution 1591 (2005), S/RES/1591 (2005), http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/RES/1591%20%282005%29

[15] “Security Council Refers Situation in Darfur, Sudan, to Prosecutor of International Criminal Court,” United Nations Security Council press release, March 31, 2005, SC/8351, http://www.un.org/press/en/2005/sc8351.doc.htm

[16] United States Executive Order 13400, Blocking Property of Persons in Connection with the Conflict in Sudan’s Darfur Region, April 26, 2006,  https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Documents/13400.pdf

[17] Guidance: Embargoes and sanctions on Sudan, UK Department for Business, Innovation & Skills and Foreign & Commonwealth Office, https://www.gov.uk/guidance/arms-embargo-on-sudan. The UK has aligned more closely with the US and Norway in the “Troika” group, while Germany and Italy have engaged more with Sudanese government, and France with the opposition, whose leaders often stay there.

[18] Lydia Polgreen, “China, in New Role, Presses Sudan on Darfur,” New York Times, February 23, 2008, (accessed April 21, 2017), http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/23/world/africa/23darfur.html (describing Chinese investment).

[19] “Engagement Beyond the Centre: An Inquiry Report on the Future of UK-Sudan Relations,” All Party Parliamentary Group for Sudan and South Sudan, February 2017, p.15

[20] Liz Sly, “Bahrain cuts ties with Tehran as crisis widens in Saudi-Iran split,” Washington Post, January 4, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/bahrain-cuts-ties-with-tehran-as-crisis-widens-in-saudi-iran-split/2016/01/04/145c8824-b271-11e5-8abc-d09392edc612_story.html?utm_term=.9bea5fe0d9a8

[21] United States Executive Order 13761, Recognizing Positive Actions by the Government of Sudan

and Providing for the Revocation of Certain Sudan-Related Sanctions, January 18, 2017,  https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Documents/sudan_eo_01132017.pdf

[22] “Treasury to Issue General License to Authorize Transactions with Sudan,” US Treasury Department Office of Public Affairs news release, January 13, 2017,  https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Documents/sudan_fact_sheet.pdf.

[23] The Khartoum Process, or the EU-Horn of Africa Migration Route Initiative, was launched in November 2014 as a forum for political dialog and cooperation between EU member states and several countries from the East and Horn region, including Sudan. See www.khartoumprocess.net

[24] European Union action document for the special support measure for Sudan, https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/regions/africa/eu-emergency-trust-fund/horn-africa_en

[25] Joint Commission-EEAS non-paper on enhancing cooperation on migration, mobility and readmission in Sudan, ARES (2016) 1325584, March 16, 2016,  http://www.statewatch.org/news/2016/mar/eu-com-eeas-readmission-sudan-7203-16.pdf

[26] All-Party Parliamentary Group for Sudan and South Sudan, “Engagement Beyond the Centre: An Inquiry Report on the Future of UK-Sudan Relations,” February 21, 2017, p. 31-32.

[27] The head of the Rapid Support Forces, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagolo, or “Hemeti,” has made public statements suggesting his forces’ operations, including border control and interdictions of migrants near the Libyan border, were done at the behest of the EU. Sudanese authorities have also continued to deport Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees. At the same time, agreements with Italy and Jordan led to the deportation of hundreds of Darfuris to Sudan in 2016. In March 2017, France said it would deport 27 Sudanese [failed] asylum-seekers back to Sudan.

[28] Human Rights Watch, Men With No Mercy: Rapid Support Forces Attacks against Civilians in Darfur, Sudan , September 2015, https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/09/09/men-no-mercy/rapid-support-forces-attacks-against-civilians-darfur-sudan

[29] Jehanne Henry, “Inaction on Darfur, Again,” Human Rights Watch dispatch, February 17, 2016, https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/02/17/dispatches-inaction-darfur-again; Final report of the Panel of Experts on the Sudan established pursuant to resolution 1591 (2005), January 9, 2017, http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?
symbol=S/2017/22

[30] Amnesty International, Scorched Earth, Poisoned Air: Sudanese Forces Ravage Jebel Mara, September 2017, http://www.amnestyusa.org/research/reports/scorched-earth-poisoned-air-s...

[31] Human Rights Watch, World Report chapter 2016, Sudan chapter, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2016/country-chapters/sudan

[32] Shangil Tobaya, “Attacks cause new displacement from Darfur’s Jebel Marra,” Dabanga, Febrauary 9, 2017, https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/attacks-cause-new-displacement-from-darfur-s-jebel-marra; “Sudan Insider: More Violence in Darfur, More Ceasefires Breached,” Nuba Reports, January 31, 2017, https://nubareports.org/
sudan-insider-more-violence-in-darfur-more-ceasefires-breachednocache1/; “Sudan Insider: SAF and SPLA-N Trade Ceasefire Breach Accusations,” February 28, 2016, https://nubareports.org/sudan-inside-saf-and-spla-n-trade-ceasefire-breach-accusations/

[33] Human Rights Watch, Ten Steps for Darfur: Indicators for Evaluating Progress in the HRC Group of Experts Process, September 24, 2007, https://www.hrw.org/report/2007/09/24/ten-steps-darfur/indicators-evalua... “Sudanese Government Should Investigate and Prosecute Those Responsible for Human Rights Violations,” Human Rights Watch news release, September 21, 2016, https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/09/21/sudanese-government-should-investigate-and-prosecute-those-responsible-human-rights

[34] Human Rights Watch, Lack of Conviction: Special Criminal Court on the Events in Darfur, June 2006, https://www.hrw.org/report/2006/06/08/lack-conviction/special-criminal-court-events-darfur; “No Justice for Protester Killings,” Human Rights Watch news release, September 22, 2016, https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/09/22/sudan-no-justice-protester-killings

[35] International Criminal Court investigation in Darfur, Sudan, https://www.icc-cpi.int/darfur#cases. One of those cases was closed when the judges did not confirm the charges against him and another has been dropped due to the death of the suspect. 

[36] Human Rights Watch, Darfur: Humanitarian Aid Under Siege, May 2006, https://www.hrw.org/report/2006/05/08/darfur-humanitarian-aid-under-siege; Human Rights Watch, Famine in Sudan, 1998: The Human Rights Causes, (New York: Human Rights Watch: February 1999).

[37] Human Rights Watch, Humanitarian Aid under Siege; Human Rights Watch, Sudan-No Control, No Choice: Obstructions to Reproductive Healthcare in Rebel-held Southern Kordofan, forthcoming.

[38] Ministry of Welfare and Social Security Humanitarian Aid Commission, amended directives, December 15, 2016, on file with Human Rights Watch.

[39] “Sudan: Urgent Concern for Rights Defender on Hunger Strike Over Unlawful Detention,” Human Rights Watch news release, February 14, 2017, https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/02/14/sudan-urgent-concern-rights-defender-hunger-strike-over-unlawful-detention.

[40] Human Rights Watch, Good Girls Don’t Protest: Repression and Abuse of Women Human Rights Defenders, Activists, and Protesters in Sudan, May 2016, https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/03/23/good-girls-dont-protest/repression...

[41] Human Rights Watch, We Stood, They Opened Fire: Killings and Arrests by Sudan’s Security Forces during the September Protests, April 2014, https://www.hrw.org/report/2014/04/21/we-stood-they-opened-fire/killings...

[42] “Tracks-affiliated rights defenders sentenced,” African Center for Justice and Peace Studies statement, March 8, 2017, http://www.acjps.org/sudan-tracks-affiliated-rights-defenders-sentenced-fined-and-finally-released-after-ten-months-of-arbitrary-detentio/

[43] ”Sudan blocks civil society participation in UN-led human rights review,” joint NGO statement, March 31, 2016, https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/03/31/sudan-blocks-civil-society-participation-un-led-human-rights-review

[44] “Humanitarian official effectively expelled from Sudan, says UN,” Guardian, May 23, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/may/23/un-humanitarian-official-effectively-expelled-sudan

[45] Human Rights Watch, Men With No Mercy

[46] See the discussion of public order laws in Human Rights Watch, Good Girls Don’t Protest

May 6, 2017 (KHARTOUM) - A Sudanese expert on international law and border disputes Saturday has strongly contested Sudan's ability to take Egypt to International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) over the disputed Halayeb area.

An international maritime border arbitrator, Osman Mohamed al-Sharif, disclosed that Sudan was planning to take Egypt to a binding arbitration before the ITLOS over the disputed Halayeb area, adding that Khartoum's recently lodged objection with the United Nations against Cairo's annexation of the region to its maritime border.

However in an interview with Sudan Tribune on Saturday, an international law expert, Faisal Abdel Rahman Ali Taha said that the courts established under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea do not have any jurisdiction over the maritime area of Halayeb as long as the land dispute over the triangle has not yet been settled.

Taha stressed, however, that the arbitral tribunal, which might be constituted under annexe VII to the Convention on the Law of the Sea, "would not consider a dispute concerning the Halayeb maritime area because that would necessarily entail consideration of the sovereignty dispute over the Halaib land. This matter is not about the application or interpretation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea But governed by other rules of international law."

"Maritime rights derive from the coastal state's sovereignty over the land because the land dominates the sea," he stressed.

The Halayeb triangle, which is a 20,580 km area on the Red Sea, has been a contentious issue between Egypt and Sudan since 1958, shortly after Sudan gained its independence from the British-Egyptian rule in January 1956.

The area has been under Cairo's full military control since the mid-1990's following a Sudanese-backed attempt to kill the former Egyptian President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt has used to reject Sudan's repeated calls for referring the dispute to international arbitration. The international law provides that the agreement of the two parties is needed to arbitrate a dispute by the tribunal.

STRAIGHT BASELINE

Moreover, Taha refused Sharif's statement that Sudan's filing of the straight baseline was a measure intended to create a third route after a refusal of the direct negotiations and the international arbitration.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir issued a decree on March 2 on the straight baselines from which the sea areas of the Republic of Sudan are measured, opposing the Cairo Declaration, which touches the Sudanese maritime border north of Line 22 and lists it as maritime coordinates of Egypt.

Al-Sharif said that Khartoum's move to deposit with the UN coordinates of the baselines from which its maritime areas are measured after 27 years since former President Hosni Mubarak lodged the maritime borders of Egypt doesn't strip Sudan of its sovereignty over Halayeb and the equivalent Red Sea waters.

But Taha stressed that the role of the UN Secretariat has no authority "to refer the dispute on the straight baselines to the arbitration or to force the concerned States to do so".

"The Secretary-General of the United Nations is the depositary of the Convention on the Law of the Sea under article 319. As to what he said that the (UN chief) is the guarantor of the Convention, there is no such a provision in the Convention about that."

Al-Sharif claimed that the UN Secretary General as guarantor to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea can end the fait accompli which was established by Egypt in Halayeb in 1995, saying the maritime borders of the Sudan in Halayeb are fixed and complementary to the land border.

(ST)

May 6, 2017 (DURBAN) - Hollywood actor, Forest Whitaker has openly appealed for peace in South Sudan, a country hit by war since 2013.

A crowd gathers outside a UN IDP camp in Juba to welcome US actor and UNESCO special envoy Forest Whitaker on 23 June 2014 (AP)

In his remarks at the World Economic Forum Africa in Durban, South Africa, Whitaker called for international intervention in negotiations to end the war, which has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions of people.

Whitaker, also the United Nations Global ambassador for peace, said it would cost an estimated $4.4 billion to avert a full-blown famine that could claim six million lives in South Sudan.

"1.8 million people have already been displaced while 1.7 million people are refugees," he told the forum on Friday.

In February, three U.N agencies and the government declared an outbreak of famine in parts of South Sudan, as violence escalated.

"The food insecurity in South Sudan stands at almost 50% and the U.N has to step up in terms of negotiations to try and bring peace and stability to the area," stressed the U.N ambassador for peace.

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after years of civil war, but conflict out in December 2013 after disagreements within its ruling party.

(ST)

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has urgently deployed peacekeeping troops to Aburoc in the Upper Nile region to help enable the delivery of much needed humanitarian assistance to the 50,000 people displaced from home, the Mission said today.

The United Nations Children&#39s Fund (UNICEF) today welcomed yesterday&#39s release of more than 80 of the Chibok schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram insurgents over three years ago.

May 6, 2017 (JUBA) – The number of people killed in Friday's attack on the road between South Sudan capital, Juba and the northeastern town of Bor has risen to 30.

A overturned truck on the Juba-Bor road, which has become almost impassable as a result of the rainy season and its poor condition (ST)

The attack occurred about 150km from Juba.

“There was no [telephone] network in Bor and people traveling from Juba never heard that tragic news and fell in the ambush,” said Awan Deng, who lost a relative.

According to multiple sources, 15 bodies were found late on Friday and three more bodies on Saturday. Five people were injured and five others, all men, are missing.

“We were in the same car and when the vehicle was strayed with bullets, I and five other people escaped, only to realize that some children were left in the car. I came back to help the children and fortunately, some soldiers just arrived and the attackers ran away,” narrated John Madang, a survivor.

Although the actual identities of the attackers remain unknown, survivors blamed Mundari tribesmen who inhabit the area. Others pointed fingers at Murle gunmen.

A police officer in Gameza, the center along Juba—Bor highway, said armed youth from Bor community revenged on the Mundari villages.

“Bor [armed youths] have burnt several villages including Gameza town and Safari,” said the officer, requesting to remain anonymous.

In 2009, clashes between Dinka Bor and the Mundari saw dozens killed and thousands displaced, amid calls for calm from Terekeka county and Jonglei state officials.

(ST)

May 6, 2017 (JUBA) - South Sudanese government under President Salva Kiir will on Monday swear in members of the national dialogue committee. Officials hope the initiative would be a step towards a lasting solution to end a deadly conflict and permit discussions for reforms and multi-party democracy.

In an announcement on the state-owned South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC) TV on Saturday, President Kiir has called on members of the National Dialogue Steering committee, including the Secretariat to attend the swearing-in ceremony on Monday 8th May at 10 A.M.

The announcements follow a presidential order rebranding National Steering committee made up of more than 109 members with representatives of the neighbouring Countries.

It is not yet clear whether all the members of the National Steering committee will attend the widely publicised function. Key opposition figures who are appointed without prior consultation, including Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior and Kosti Manibe, have turned down their appointments, citing the need for confidence-building measures, including the end of hostilities and the involvement African Union and United Nations.

Presidential Advisor Tor Deng Mawien on decentralisation and intergovernmental linkage told Sudan Tribune on Saturday that the dialogue would be an opportunity for all the parties to hold frank discussions on how to end the conflict in the country.

"We are going to hold a comprehensive national dialogue during which we will announce South Sudan's transition towards a multi-party democratic state in which everyone will be equal and able to participate in the building of the nation's future,” said Mawien.

Delegates, he said are expected to include civil society, women groups, youth, political parties and representatives from international organisations and observers from countries in the region.

The delegates would be invited to discuss a whole bundle of reforms and would encourage experts to present during the dialogue analytical reports to support the reform project and the national dialogue.

(ST)

May 6, 2017 (NEW YORK) – The United Nations Security Council has "strongly" condemned the 3 May attack on its mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), calling on all parties to immediately adhere to the permanent ceasefire called for in the August 2015 peace deal.

According to UNMISS, between 11 pm and midnight on 3 May, the mission's temporary operating base in Leer town in the former Unity State came under small-arms attack from the direction of the nearby government-held town.

Peacekeepers' quick defensive action secured the safety of all of the internally displaced people who had sought UN protection adjacent to the base, said UNMISS.

“The members of the Security Council recalled that individuals who, directly or indirectly, engage in attacks against United Nations missions, international security presence, or other peacekeeping operations, or humanitarian personnel, may be designated for targeted sanctions,” the 15-member body said in a 6 May statement.

The Council members, however, expressed appreciation for the actions taken by UNMISS peacekeepers to repel the 3 May attack, further condemned the continued violence committed by all parties, including the ongoing military offensives, and called for the removal of all obstacles to the delivery of lifesaving humanitarian assistance.

The U.N human rights chief had earlier, also appealed to the Government of South Sudan to halt any further military offensives towards Aburoc in the Upper Nile region.

Despite the August 2015 peace deal, South Sudan has witnessed renewed clashes between forces loyal to South Sudan President Salva Kiir and the armed opposition faction (SPLM-IO) backing the country's First Vice-President Riek Machar.

Violence has caused a rise in the number of displaced people into its bases, while thousands have fled to neighbouring Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya.

Up to 50, 000 civilians in South Sudan's oil-producing Upper Nile region are at imminent risk of human rights violations as government troops close in, the U.N High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein warned Thursday.

(ST)

May 6, 2017 (JUBA) - South Sudan has denied reports that its soldiers attacked a United Nations peacekeeping base in Leer, a town in former Unity state.

The army spokesman, Col. Santo Domic Chol claimed the military was yet to receive formal complaints from anyone claiming to have been assaulted.

“Our forces did not any attack any U.N facility. That is not part of our culture. it is not part of our operations. We do not have a problem with the United Nations and therefore not wise to just feed the public with incident which has not been fully investigated and proved to have carried out by our forces”, he said on Saturday.

The official was reacting to the Security Council's condemnation of the attack, which reportedly came from the direction of a government-held territory in Leer.

Members of the Security Council, in a statement, strongly condemned the attack on its South Sudan mission (UNMISS) in Leer. The incident took place on the 3 May.

The Council expressed appreciation for the actions taken by UNMISS peacekeepers to repel the attack, pointing out that individuals, who, directly or indirectly, engage in attacks against U.N missions, international security presence, or other peacekeeping operations, or humanitarian personnel, may be designated for targeted sanctions.

“The members of the Security Council further condemned the continued violence committed by all parties in South Sudan, including the ongoing military offensives, and called on all parties to immediately adhere to the permanent ceasefire as called for in the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan and to remove all obstacles to delivery of lifesaving humanitarian assistance," partly reads the statement.

Relations between South Sudan government and the world body soured when conflict erupted in the young nation in mid-December 2013, forcing thousands of unarmed civilians to seek protection various camps and compounds manned by the U.N from the fighting. The government accused U.N of sheltering rebels inside its bases.

A January 2014 incident in which UNMISS barred the country's information minister, Michael Makuei Lueth from entering its base in Jonglei after his bodyguards were found in possession of weapons worsened ties between government and the U.N.

However, in events that followed, President Salva Kiir accused the world body of seeking to take over the war-torn nation, reinforcing speculations by members of his government that U.N mission in the country may have pushed his main political rival, Riek Machar, to rise up against him. The president later retracted his accusations.

(ST)

Former U.S. Special Envoy for Sudans Princeton Lyman—still pushing expedient, mendacious claims about Khartoum regime

Eric Reeves

If anyone thought that the views expressed by former Special Envoy for the Sudans in December 2011—arguing that the National Islamic Front/National Congress Party regime is capable of “carrying out reform via constitutional democratic measures”—might have been chastened by the dramatic increase in domestic repression in Sudan, as well as continuing genocide in Darfur, the Nuba Mountains, and Blue Nile, they would have been sadly mistaken, as Sudan Tribune has recently reported:

Human Rights Watch calls to delay revocation of Sudan sanctions | Sudan Tribune, May 3, 2017 | Khartoum | http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article62361

Rights groups and defenders regret that the process does not include human rights situation and focus mainly on counterterrorism cooperation, humanitarian situation and other regional security matters including South Sudan. “Sudan has a long record of demonstrating disregard for the most basic human rights,” said Leslie Lefkow, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch, before to call for the delay of sanctions' revocation. “The U.S. should delay any final decision about revoking sanctions, and take more time to insist on tangible improvements in human rights,” she said in a statement issued on Wednesday…

[F]ormer U.S. Special Envoy, Princeton Lyman, insisted that the permanent revocation of the partial embargo is "an opening to a more serious and intensive dialogue with the Government of Sudan about peace, democracy, and development."

This claim is a perverse restatement of an earlier one, made in a December 3, 2011 interview with Asharq al-Awsat. Lyman then gave us our clearest view of just how expedient the Obama administration was prepared to be in dealing with the Khartoum regime, despite what Senator, presidential candidate, and President called “genocide” in Darfur—a “stain on our souls,” as he unctuously declared. Lyman made the following enormously consequential statement about the preposterous “desire” that would guide Obama administration policy and, by default, that of the incompetent and woefully understaffed Trump administration.

“We [the Obama administration] do not want to see the ouster of the [Khartoum] regime, nor regime change. We want to see the regime carrying out reform via constitutional democratic measures.” (Interview with Asharq al-Awsat, December 3, 2011 | http://english.aawsat.com/2011/12/article55244147/asharq-al-awsat-talks-to-us-special-envoy-to-sudan-princeton-lyman )

This represents nothing less than a vicious expediency put in service of improving counter-terrorism cooperation between Khartoum and the U.S. intelligence community. The “deal” was consummated with Obama's lifting of longstanding U.S. sanctions on Khartoum in his last week in office (January 13, 2017), justified in part by the outrageous falsehood of his ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power: we have seen a “seas change” of improvement in humanitarian access in Sudan | http://webtv.un.org/watch/samantha-power-united-states-final-press-conference-to-un-correspondents-13-january-2017/5281173841001/. There is not a shred of real evidence to support this claim, and yet it stands uncorrected by any U.S. government official, past or present. The reality is that Khartoum continues to use the denial, obstruction, and manipulation of humanitarian assistance to desperately need civilians as a weapon of war and a diplomatic tool.

On what possible basis could Lyman have argued, and continue to argue, that the Khartoum regime is capable of “carrying out reform via constitutional democratic measures”? Here as well there is not a shred of evidence to support such a disgraceful claim in the five and a half years since the Asharq al-Awsat interview. Human rights report after human rights report; continual dispatches from Sudan Tribune, Radio Dabanga, and numerous other Sudanese news sources in the diaspora—all make clear that repression has only grown more intense and brutal. One might think particularly of the killing of hundreds during civil society demonstrations in September 2013 or the Nertiti massacre of civilians on January 1, 2017 or the continuing detention of human rights activist and humanitarian Ibrahim Mudawi. And what of the use of chemical weapons by the Khartoum regime in the Jebel Marra offensive of 2016, conclusively demonstrated by Amnesty International? Lyman's boss, Secretary of State John Kerry, called the use of chemical weapons in Syria by Bashar al-Assad a “moral obscenity.” We've heard nothing from Lyman about what such a “moral obscenity” represents in the Khartoum regime. Nor have we heard from him anything about the continuing epidemic of state-sanctioned rape as a weapon of war in Darfur—an epidemic in which tens of thousands of non-Arab/African girls and women have been victimised.

It is impossible to believe that Lyman does not know how brutal, how savagely repressive, how indifferent to human suffering and human rights the Khartoum regime is—and has been during its 28 years of tyrannical rule. It is impossible to believe that he doesn't know that expecting “the regime to carry out reform via constitutional democratic measures” is an utterly preposterous notion—in December 2011, and in May 2017. Just how preposterous such a notion this is has been continuously demonstrated in soul-destroying detail:

Human rights and reporting that should be read by Lyman—all published subsequently to his December 2011 interview with Asharq al-Awsat:

Sudan: Mass Rape by Army in Darfur: UN, AU Should Press for Protection, International Investigation | February 11, 2015 | https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/02/11/sudan-mass-rape-army-darfur

“Men With No Mercy”: Rapid Support Forces Attacks against Civilians in Darfur, Sudan | September 9, 2015 | https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/09/09/men-no-mercy/rapid-support-forces-attacks-against-civilians-darfur-sudan

Scorched Earth, Poisoned Air: Sudanese Government Forces Ravage Jebel Marra, Darfur | September 29, 2016 | http://www.amnestyusa.org/research/reports/scorched-earth-poisoned-air-sudanese-government-forces-ravage-jebel-marra-darfur

Sudan must end politically-motivated attacks on Darfuri students, January 18, 2017 https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/01/sudan-must-end-politically-motivated-attacks-on-darfuri-students/

Border Control from Hell: How the EU's migration partnership legitimizes Sudan's "militia state," April 6, 2017 | http://www.enoughproject.org/reports/border-control-hell-how-eus-migration-partnership-legitimizes-sudans-militia-state

Remote Control Breakdown : Sudanese Paramilitary Forces and Pro-Government Militias, by Jérôme Tubiana | HSBA Issue Brief 27/Small Arms Survey, April 2017

…and countless dispatches from Sudan Tribune, Radio Dabanga, Nuba Reports, Radio Tamazuj, and many Arabic-language news reporting, including al-Hurriyat—from December 2011 to the present.

Drawing on these reports and the reporting by Sudanese news sources, I have produced the following syntheses:
Continuing Mass Rape of Girls in Darfur: The most heinous crime generates no international outrage | January 2016 | http://sudanreeves.org/2017/03/07/continuing-mass-rape-of-girls-in-darfur-the-most-heinous-crime-generates-no-international-outrage-january-2016/

“Changing the Demography”: Violent Expropriation and Destruction of Farmlands in Darfur, November 2014 – November 2015" | December 1, 2015 | http://sudanreeves.org/2016/02/17/changing-the-demography-violent-expropriation-and-destruction-of-farmlands-in-darfur-november-2014-november-2015/
Violent Mortality in the Darfur Genocide: A matter of international indifference and prevarication—and shame | April 28, 2017 | http://sudanreeves.org/2017/04/27/violent-mortality-in-the-darfur-genocide-a-matter-of-international-indifference-and-prevarication/
—

Eric Reeves, Senior Fellow at Harvard University's François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights

May 6, 2017 (KHARTOUM) - Several Sudanese bankers Saturday have warned against the use of credit transfer via mobile phone in terrorism financing in light of the lack of control over the volume of funds transferred through the service.

Large segments of the Sudanese society send money through the credit transfer service provided by the three nationwide mobile operators.

Speaking at a press forum in Khartoum Saturday, executive director of the Banking Services Company Omer Hassan al-Omerabi said the lack of control over the credit transfer via mobile phone could be exploited by some parties in terrorism financing”.

He said that 85% of the Sudanese use the credit transfer through mobile phones, pointing that Sudan ranks second in the world after Kenya in the use of this method according to a study conducted by the World Bank in 2014.

Al-Omerabi added that the Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS) has no control over the service, stressing the method poses a real danger as it is not subjected to any control by government organs.

For his part, the CBoS representative Zahir Fageery disclosed that a joint committee from the National Telecommunications Corporation (NTC) and the CBoS has been formed to investigate the issue, saying its first decision would be to set limits for the money amounts that can be transferred.

He said that starting from next month each customer will be allowed to transfer only 500 Sudanese pounds (SDG) daily.

Meanwhile, the Secretary General of the Consumer Protection Association (CPA) Yassir Merghani criticised the delay in introducing the CBoS's controlled money transfer service, holding the mobile operators responsible for the delay.

“If there is suspicion of corruption, money laundering and terrorism financing, the service must be stopped immediately,” he said.

Sudanese parliament adopted in June 2014 a law to combat money laundering and terrorism financing that contained articles related to consolidating investigations and financial intelligence which is the enforcement mechanism that receives notifications and information from financial institutions and other parties.

Sudan was placed on the U.S. terrorism list in 1993 over allegations it was harbouring Islamist militants working against regional and international targets.

(ST)

May 6, 2017 (KHARTOUM) - A delegation from the Supreme Council for Coordinating Affairs of Ngok Dinka of Abyei region Saturday has arrived in Sudan's central town of Wad Medani to discuss ways to issue national identity cards for its community members residing in the Gezira State.

An unidentified woman stands in the central market of Abyei, Sudan, Thursday Jan. 13, 2011,

Ownership of Abyei, an oil-producing region contested by Sudan and South Sudan, remained contentious even after the world's youngest nation split from Sudan in 2011. Khartoum and Juba failed to agree on who can participate on in a vote to determine the future of the region.

However, the two governments continue to treat the population of the region as its nationals.

Last February, President Omer al-Bashir underscored that Abyei is a Sudanese territory, instructing national authorities to provide its residents with full administrative services including issuance of identity cards and passports.

The secretary of organisational communication at the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) in the locality of Wad Medani Hassan Abdel-Aziz Al-Maz said his party is “committed to supporting the entire issues of Ngok Dinka of Abyei”.

The official news agency SUNA reported that Al-Maz, who met the delegation Saturday, expressed pleasure to inaugurate the office of Ngok Dinka in the Gezira State as the first regional office.

For his part, the head of the supreme council and political secretary of the NCP in Abyei Chol Mawien Bol said they seek to prove that Abyei is a Sudanese territory, pointing the council is non-partisan.

He said that the number of Ngok Dinak community members residing in the cotton-producing Gezira State ranges from 6000 to 7000 people, saying they are distributed at the eight localities of the state.

The 2005 peace agreement which ended 21 years of war between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) provided for a referendum to be conducted by the people of Abyei to choose between remaining in the Sudan and joining South Sudan.

The Dinka Ngok organised a unilateral referendum from 27to 29 October 2013 to say they want to join the Republic of South Sudan.

Khartoum, Juba, the African Union and the international community refused to recognise the outcome of the vote.

(ST)

The abduction of 276 girls in 2014 sparked a global outcry and the #BringBackOurGirls campaign.

The students from a primary school in northern Tanzania were travelling to sit an exam.

Leicester City guarantee their Premier League survival with a deserved home victory over struggling Watford.

French side Lille exercise their option to sign Tunisia midfielder Naim Sliti on a permanent deal from second-tier side Red Star.

May 5, 2017 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's Attorney General has cancelled a decision to release human rights defender Mudawi Ibrahim, who has been detained since last December without charges, his lawyer said on Friday.

Ibrahim, university professor and chair of the non-governmental organisation Sudan Social Development Organisation (SUDO) was arrested on 7 December 2016 by the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS).

By the end of March 2017, his lawyer Nabil Adib said the court had issued a decision to release his client on bail. But his family at the time expressed concern over the possible intervention of the national security service (NISS) to keep him in detention.

On Friday, Adib told Sudan Tribune that the general attorney has cancelled its decision to release his client.

"I have not seen the reasons for the decision and will try to see the merits on Sunday," he said.

"(But) I learned that the decision ordered further investigations. It seems that a hidden motivation triggered this measure," the lawyer added.

For her part, Mudawi's family considered the decision as more "procrastination" from the Sudanese government to prevent his release.

"This means that they want to continue holding him and prolong his detention," his wife Sabah Adam told Sudan Tribune on Friday.

A media outlet, close to the ruling National Congress Party, earlier this year claimed that Mudawi is involved on a report released last year by Amnesty International on the use of chemical weapons in Darfur's Jebel Marra.

However, the NISS seemingly has failed to provide evidence supporting its allegations.

(ST)

Eliud Kipchoge misses out on breaking two hours for a marathon by 26 seconds but his time will not be a world record.

May 5, 2017 (JUBA) - Ten people, including three children and five women, have been killed in an ambush on a passengers' car on Juba- Bor road on Friday, relatives and officials said.

Armed robberies are common on South Sudan highways. Rebels and gunmen are allegedly responsible for these criminal attacks. The bloody attack on Juba-Bor road occurred near Gameza, a centre in Terekeke State at some 120km from Juba.

"Three children died as well as five women and two men. The driver was shot and killed instantly and the gunmen then killed passengers," a witness who was travelling in another car told Sudan Tribune late on Friday.

Three people survived in the ill-fated vehicle. The survivors are said to be one woman and two children. The Land Cruiser hardtop was travelling to Bor from Juba.

Jonglei state information Minister Akech Dengdit confirmed the ambush but declined to discuss further details.

Dengdit said police is still investigating the incident.

Other sources told Sudan Tribune that tension has been rising between Murdari and Dinka Bor in recent days after two people from both sides were killed in unclear circumstances. It is not clear which side started the fight.

Hundreds of people and thousands displaced during armed clashes between the two ethnics in 2009. Also, it led to close the Bor-Juba road which is crucial to supply Bor with essential food commodities imported from neighbouring countries.

(ST)

Strongly condemning the attack against the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) on 3 May, the Security Council has called on all parties to immediately adhere to the permanent ceasefire called for in an August 2015 peace agreement.