Africa

By Mahmoud A. Suleiman

At such pivotal occasions one would first find it necessary to pay tributes and ask Almighty Allaah's mercy and prayers for the lives of thousands of the innocent Sudanese citizens that were lost during the years of the futile wars launched by the regime, the ousted Islamic National Congress Party (NCP), and its ousted genocidal fugitive from the international justice the dictator Omer Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir, and the hope for a speedy recovery for the wounded, and the hope for the return of the refugee and the internally displaced citizens to their original lands and homes and Welcome, without hesitation or reservation on the outcomes of the Sudanese Peace agreement, signed with initials in the peace platform of Juba, the capital of the sisterly state of South Sudan.

This article comes against the backdrop of the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF), the coalition of rebel groups from the western region of Darfur and the southern states of South Kordofan and the Blue Nile, signing the peace agreement at a ceremony in Juba, capital of neighbouring South Sudan, which has hosted and helped mediate the long-running talks since late 2019. At this occasion, I ask myself as to what am I going to say at this pivotal time when the long-awaited and remotely expected hope has been fulfilled? This state of mind has been lingering within us which was the fact that made us continue dreaming until we lived to witness the celebration of the initial signing of the Sudan Peace Agreement in the Peace Forum in Juba, the capital of the sisterly State of South Sudan under the leadership of the beloved President His Excellency Salva Kiir Mayardit, and in the presence of the components of the Sudanese transitional government and representatives of countries in Our African and Arab surroundings regions, and the whole world around us.

It is a joy that resembles as if we were in a dream; a thousand of congratulations to the mediation committee and to the components of the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) and to the Sudanese people as a whole. Indeed, these are historical moments mixed with the slogans of the glorious 19th December 2018 Revolution, which the revolutionaries chanted loudly Freedom, Peace and Justice.

This celebration is not only a moment's event but rather it goes on to address the roots causes of the chronic Sudanese crisis, which has continued unabatedly since the dawn of the departure of the British-Egyptian colonialism aka Anglo-Egyptian Condominium. Sudan has been plugged by an endless series of military putschist - Coup d' état regimes – that amounted to over thirty-odd and lean years.

Sudan has witnessed and suffered 4 military coup d'état and 6 failed coup attempts during the 62 years after the departure of the foreign colonials, and after that came the failed internal colonialism characterised by Arbitrary ruling regimes; the worst and the 30 year-long one has been the International Muslim Brotherhood Movement (MBM), Khartoum branch which the people of Sudan ousted following the Glorious 19th December 2018 Revolution.

At this stage let us leaf through what Ahmed Mohamed Tugud, a leader in the Justice and Equality Movement and chief negotiator for the Darfur track, reported about the outputs of the Juba Peace Platform and what has been achieved and expected include the following:

At the end of August and beginning of September 2020, major work was accomplished on the Juba platform, and the results reached in their entirety were positive and promising, as a number of agreements were signed - the Juba Declaration Agreement, which includes the political declaration and the declaration of a cessation of hostilities, agreements on detailed issues and the signature came On the framework agreement that will draw the road map linked to the multiple files, and accordingly, there were multiple paths and in the Darfur path with its many files, including the following:
• The file of power-sharing
• File of wealth-sharing
• Justice, accountability and reconciliation file
• Compensation and reparation file
• The land and hawakir file
• The nomads and pastoralists sector development file in the Darfur region
• The Internally Displaced People and refugees file
• The file of the permanent ceasefire agreement and final security arrangements

And now negotiations are underway on the file on the final security arrangements, so a great way has been made about the male files, especially in the file of the return of the displaced and refugees, which if fulfilled positively helps the final return of refugees and displaced persons, knowing that this is linked to the land paper and thus has been completed Establishing the historical rights of people for the tribes, which is the restoration of all lands that were previously seized unlawfully or by using force and arms. Mechanisms have been formed for this paper for the return of people to their lands in Hawakeer in an organized manner. This is in addition to the justice paper that talks about the people wanted for international justice And the agreement to hand over the wanted persons to the International Criminal Court, in addition to holding accountable the persons who committed crimes in Darfur who are large in number and whose crimes are many, there should be other mechanisms capable of achieving justice, bringing justice to the victims and realizing the right of people who have been affected by the conflict, and therefore it was agreed to form courts Especially within Sudan, and special budgets and international oversight have been set for it in order for us to properly conduct justice without any external influence, which helps in recovering People have their rights in a quick and efficient manner. This is in addition to the file on wealth that addresses the historical imbalance and injustice in the distribution of resources and wealth in the country, and it was carried out with specific criteria on this division of wealth in addition to determining the region's share of the earth's resources from wealth, taxes, customs and sources of income. Governmental mechanisms were agreed upon, whether central, such as the revenue commission and the commission for resource allocation and revenue inventory, in addition to how to effectively and equitably distribute resources so that the imbalance that occurred in the past is addressed, and this is in the answer to the second paper on nomads, herders and farmers, where The dispute in the centre extended to the outskirts of the country, and we agreed that the region's share would be large with regard to the resources extracted from the ground through mechanisms that were agreed upon, whether local or in the centre in Khartoum, such as the commission for resource allocation and revenue inventory, in addition to how to distribute resources effectively and fairly. In order to address the major imbalances that occurred in the past, either in the nomads, shepherds and farmers paper, which includes a large segment where the dispute with the centre has spread to the parties And clear criteria were agreed upon so that the region's share would be large in all sources of income. The government's powers were also defined and with regard to the authority paper that has thorny issues related to the current political situation, the constitutional document and the mechanisms of transition in it at the level of the sovereign, the Council of Ministers and the Legislative Council. The most important of what has been achieved include the following:

Confirming the idea of a single region for all of Darfur, and this will be done for the regional government after signing the peace, as clear powers have been achieved to enable the current government to implement what was agreed upon, and if this implementation paper is estimated, it will open to people the active political participation in power at all levels in the country of Sudan, starting with, the Council of Ministers, and the Legislative Council, in addition to the governours of states, state governments, and various bodies. This, through negotiation, the principle of the region was established among the marginal masses, especially the masses of Darfur, and this achievement would not have been achieved had it not been for the great effort that was made in the Juba platform, and in addition, A unique investigation has been made for the civil service, where people will be absorbed upon the signing of the agreement. The final agreement will be made directly, where direct appointments are made by ambassadors and agents of ministries and global missions and in the civil service at a rate of twenty per cent only after forty-five days from the signing of the agreement, after which the procedures are followed. And lasts for six months, followed by absorption of ten per cent, to be completed to thirty per cent in less than eight or nine months, and this is without the slightest doubt an achievement Great, as this applies to the judiciary or the public prosecution, and so on in bodies and commissions, and in all public and semi-public companies, and we believe that this is a great precedent for people.

The Sudanese Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) took the opportunity of the initiative to celebrate the signing of the initials of the peace agreement in the peace platform in Juba through an interactive meeting to preach the agreement and set up a meeting in order to reflect on positive engagement in welcoming the peace and looing forwards towards the opportunities for implementing the agreement and on peaceful coexistence and scaling the social fabric by Ustaz Mahjoub Hassan Jalal Al-Din, Secretary of the Sudanese Justice and Equality Movement in North Darfur State, and on the guarantees for the implementation of the agreement; while the Engineer Abu Bakr Hamid al-Nur, advisor to the Leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), said that the guarantee of this agreement is its implementation, on which the Sudanese people will depend on and look forward to its implementation and Applying it to coexistent reality.

Among the important issues that need to be given great care and attention is the issue of prisoners of war (PWOs) who are in the prisons of the ousted regime, especially prisoners whose place of imprisonment is unknown, and let alone those missing from previous battles and wars. Therefore, the parties that signed the peace agreement in Juba should hurry to disclose the whereabouts of those victims of these absurd wars of attrition.

In sum, the Sudan Peace Agreement, which was signed by initials at the Peace Forum in Juba, the capital of the sisterly state of South Sudan, found unprecedented support from all the Sudanese people and the armed struggle movements. And the Sudanese people have grown more joyful today when the peace agreement that signed in Juba has been resigned in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, on the third of September 2020 by Dr Abdullah Hamdok, Prime Minister of Sudan's transitional government, and Commander Abdulaziz Al-Hilu Chairperson of the Sudan People's Liberation Army SPLA-North who will keep his weapons until an agreement on the secular state is reached.
https://sudantribune.com/spip.php?article69777

Furthermore, Hamdok returns to the country after promising discussions with Al-Hilu and Sudanile publishes the text of the original joint statement between Hamdok and Al-Hilu and the agreement to negotiate in Juba.http://www.sudanile.com/index.php/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1/129134-%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%83-%D9%8A%D8%B9%D9%88%D8%AF-%D9%84%D9%84%D8%A8%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AF-%D8%A8%D8%B9%D8%AF-%D9%85%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%AD%D8%AB%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%85%D8%A8%D8%B4%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D9%85%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D9%84%D9%88

Thus, the Juba Sudanese Peace Agreement has acquired unanimous approval by all the rebel movements except the faction chaired by Comrade Abel Wahid Muhammed Ahmed El-Nour, who will, hopefully, get convinced to sign as did his counterpart rebel movements. As they say, it is better to come late than never! The Sudan peace talks lead to 7 protocols signed in Juba, according to the final Documents, as reported by the Dabanga Website. https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/sudan-peace-talks-7-protocols-signed-in-juba
The Professionals Association is reported to have expressed its support for the separation of religion and state to advance the peace process.https://www.sudantribune.net/%D8%AA%D8%AC%D9%85%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%87%D9%86%D9%8A%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%AA%D8%A3%D9%8A%D9%8A%D8%AF-%D9%81%D8%B5%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%B9%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%84%D8%A9

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn the Russian novelist, philosopher, historian, short story writer and political prisoner and who was an outspoken critic of the Soviet Union and Communism and helped to raise global awareness of the Soviet Gulag forced-labor camp system, has been quoted as saying: “Of course, peace treaties are very attractive to those who sign them. They strengthen one's prestige with the electorate. But the time will come when the names of these public figures will be erased from history. Nobody will remember them any longer. But the Western peoples will have to pay heavily for these overtrusting agreements.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/peace-treaty

Dr Mahmoud A. Suleiman is an author, columnist and a blogger. His blog is http://thussudan.wordpress.com/

September 7, 2020 (JUBA) - The head of the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said they are planning to reduce the residents of the displacement camps, previously called e Protection of Civilians (POC) sites

On 4 September, David Shearer announced the withdrawal of UNMISS troops from the POC sites across the country to be under the control of the government security forces.

On Monday Shearer met with President Salva Kiir to discuss UNMISS plans to reshape the now called IDPs cams, according to a statement released by the press unit of the South Sudanese presidency after the meeting.

"Speaking to the media after the meeting, David Shearer said that the UN protection camps are highly congested, and therefore the UN is planning to reduce the population at the sites to curb the spread of coronavirus," further said the statement.

In his press conference of last week, the UN envoy the COVID 19 continues to hit the country before to add that the residents of the POC sites "live closer together so therefore the risk of spreading is a bit higher".

However, he stressed that people in South Sudan die more from malaria than the new coronavirus.

"While we are seeing cases (of coronavirus) in the POC sites, we are not seeing a mass death rate or anything like that. In fact, we are seeing more deaths, at the moment, from malaria and malaria-related issues than we are from COVID".

The statement said that the head of the peacekeeping mission said that there is an improvement in the security situation in Jonglei State.

(ST)

September 7, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - The transitional government and the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) initialled the matrix of the implementation of the peace agreement they reached on 31 August.

The initial signing ceremony which took place on Monday at the venue of the peace talks in Juba was attended by representatives of both sides and the mediation team.

In statements after the event, Tut Gatluak the chief mediator said that the South Sudanese government will invite the Sudanese government, represented by the Sovereign Council and the Council of Ministers, heads of state and government of the IGAD, representatives of the United Nations, Friends of Sudan group, Arab and African countries to attend the final signing ceremony of the peace agreement.

Gatluak who is also the South Sudanese presidential adviser for security affairs recalled that achieving peace in Sudan is closely linked to the security and stability of South Sudan.

He encouraged the leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North Abdel Aziz al-Hilu to resume peace talks with the Sudanese government and called on the holdout rebel leader Abdel Wahid al-Nur to join the ongoing efforts to bring peace in Sudan.

Following a meeting of President Salva Kiir with the member of the Sovereign Council Shams al-Din Kabbashi, Gatluak said that, on Sunday, that the final signing of the peace agreement between the Sudanese parties will take place in Juba on 2nd October.

(ST)

September 7, 2020 (ASMARA) - Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the Sovereign Council and President Isaias Afwerki discussed the implementation of a bilateral security agreement between the two countries.

Al-Burhan travelled to Asmara for a one-day working visit where he was received by Afwerki before to hold a meeting on bilateral matters.

"Eritrea and Sudan have agreed on concrete measures that will be taken to implement comprehensive bilateral agreements reached in the economic, trade, security and military sectors as well as mechanisms and timelines for their commencement," said the Eritrean information ministry after the visit.

The two parties further "discussed regional issues of common concern, especially frameworks for cooperation in the security field," said the Sovereign Council in a quoting Sudanese Chargé d'Affairs in Asmara Mahmoud Hamza.

The meeting was attended by Osman Saleh Eritrean Foreign Minister, Yemane Gebreab Presidential Adviser.

For his part, al-Burhan was accompanied by Jamal Abdel Majid Director of the General Intelligence Service, and Yasir Mohamed Osman Head of the Military Intelligence.

Before to return to Khartoum, al-Burhan visited agricultural development projects around Mislam and Logo dams.

(ST)

September 6, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - The Sudanese Communist Party and the SPLM-N led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu agreed to work together to ensure religious diversity through the inclusion of fundamental principles in the constitution of Sudan that should not be amended under any circumstances.

Sudanese Communist Party (SCP) secretary-general Mohamed Mukhtar al-Khatib (Al-Sudani)

The two parties agreed on a political declaration after a series of meeting that took place between them in the Ethiopian capital, on Saturday and Sunday. The discussions touched issues related to democracy, nationalities and diversity in Sudan.

"The constitution or the law must not violate the freedoms and rights contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international and regional covenants. Any law issued in contravention of this declaration and charters shall be null and unconstitutional," read the joint declaration.

"The human rights principles included in these charters are fundamental principles in the constitution of Sudan, and it not is allowed to violate, amend, or skip them under any pretext," it added.

The declaration comes after an agreement between the prime minister Abdallah Hamdok and al-Hilu to hold consultative discussions on the separation of religion and the state before to resume formal peace talks.

The agreement prohibits the establishment of any political party in the country on a religious basis. Also, it says that the state should recognizes and respects the religious diversity and ensures peaceful coexistence, equality and tolerance.

The Communist Party and the SPLM-N al-Hilu pledged to work together to protect the Sudanese people's right to change and freedom and to implement the revolution's slogan of "freedom, peace and justice."

The Mohamed Mukhtar al-Khatib, Political secretary of the Sudanese Communist Party his party delegation while the SPLM-N delegation was chaired by al-Hilu.

(ST)

September 6, 2020 (JUBA) - The South Sudanese mediation announced that the final peace agreement between the Sudanese transitional government and the armed groups will be signed on 2 October in Juba.

"The signing of the final peace agreement between the government and the Revolutionary Front will take place on the second of October in Juba," said the chief mediator Tut Galtuak on Sunday.

Galtuak expected that the two parties will sign the implementation matrix on Monday, in preparation for the final signing of the peace agreement.

The Sudanese parties initialled the one-year negotiated agreement on 31 August.

Following what, they formed a committee to set up the implementation matrix.

There were unconfirmed reports that the final signing ceremony will be in Khartoum with a popular ceremony.

(ST)

September 6, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the Sovereign Council held a meeting with the National Program Group (NPG), which is made up of several groups previously allied with the former regime.

Tijani al-Sissi (SUNA)

The meeting which took place at the headquarters of the Sudanese army raised widespread reactions in social media, given that the group participated in the regime of the ousted president, Omer al-Bashir until his collapse in April 2019.

The National Programme Group (NPG) consists of the Sudan Renaissance Alliance headed by Tijani al-Sissi, former head of the Darfur Transitional Authority, the Popular Congress Party, the Democratic Unionist Party faction of Ahmed Bilal, the Justice Party led by Bechara Aru, the Third Way group, and the Union of Independent Representatives, a group of former MPs in the dissolved parliament, headed by Abu al-Gasim Burtom.

Following the meeting, a spokesman of the Sudanese army issued a statement saying that al-Burhan was briefed about the NPG objectives which call for concerted national efforts to face the serious challenges that Sudan is going through internally, externally, economically and security.

The statement quoted al-Sissi as saying that the way out of these challenges is the agreement of all political forces on a national programme for the transitional period and the development of a permanent constitution for the country.

Al-Sissi further stressed the need not to focus on who governs Sudan, but the constitution that governs it.

"Al-Burhan valued the efforts made by the NPG forces to serve the supreme national interests and stressed the importance of national cohesion," he added.

According to al-Bashir's former partner, al-Burhan further called to hold a workshop for all components of the political forces to develop visions to achieve the goals of the glorious December revolution.

Aru, a former information minister in Bashir's government from Darfur region, said on his Facebook page that al-Burhan had received a copy of their programme.

(ST)

September 6, 2020 (ZALINGEI) - Hundreds of supporters of the head of the Sudan Liberation Movement Abdel Wahid Mohamed (SLM-AW) demonstrated in Zalingei, Central Darfur state, on Sunday, against the peace agreement initialled recently in Juba.

Al-Nur refused to join the peace process brokered by the South Sudanese government saying the parties are negotiating a power-sharing deal that does not address the root causes of the conflict.

Instead, he proposed to hold a peace conference inside Sudan with the participation of all political and civil forces and armed movements, but he did not provide details of his initiative so far.

“Hundreds of al-Nur's supporters in Al-Hamidiyah camp for displaced people in Zalingei demonstrated against the peace agreement, shouting slogans describing it as a compromise that did not do justice to the victims of the war.”

It is noteworthy that the city of Zalingei is the birthplace of Abdel Wahid al-Nur.

The demonstrators held banners saying that the rights of victims and displaced persons are not negotiable, also they chanted slogans describing the peace agreement as bargaining with the rights of IDPs and refugees and as a provocation against them.

The Sudanese government says it is actively seeking to persuade the exiled rebel leader to engage in negotiations but they failed until now.

On Saturday, Faisal Mohamed Saleh Information Minister told Sky News Arabia that al-Nur did not set any conditions for negotiation.

"The condition he had been repeating for a long time is that he does not want to negotiate outside Sudan," Saleh added.

Saleh went further to say that the government welcomes the idea, and is willing to provide all the guarantees that he, the SLM-AW leadership and its negotiating delegation need until to reach Khartoum and begin peace talks inside Sudan.

(ST)

The UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) is dismissing as a “complete fabrication” an Algerian news report claiming that a UN tribunal has rejected a complaint by a group of political activists. 

The top UN official in Libya urged the Security Council on Wednesday to press for an immediate de-escalation of tensions and a return to negotiations, following the call from rival political leaders for a ceasefire on 21 August.

Babatunde Olatunji was part of a generation of Africans who fought for racial justice in the US.

The UN and its partners are supporting the Sudanese Government as it responds to recent severe flooding, which has killed 90 people and affected 380,000 others, the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, said on Tuesday.

A peace agreement between Sudanese authorities and key armed movements from Darfur could provide a path to national unity, the head of the joint UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) said on Monday. Secretary-General António Guterres later described it as an "historic achievement" towards lasting peace.

President Akufo-Addo is expected to address the nation tonight on new measures taken by the country in the fight against COVID-19. This will be his 16th national address on the subject since Ghana recorded its first two cases of the virus in March 2020.

It appears the practice of lynching old women labeled as 39;witches 39; is getting out of hand as new events of such barbaric acts rage on. Not too long ago, it was Akua Denteh, this time around, it is Madam Meri Ibrahim, a 60-year-old alleged witch who has been attacked and butchered by residents in Sumpini near Busunu in the West Gonja municipality of the Savannah Region.

Some 87 new COVID-19 cases have been recorded in Ghana pushing the country rsquo;s cumulative case count to 44,205. Furthermore, the number of persons who have recovered currently stands at 42,777 while the number of active cases is 1,152.

The controversy surrounding the Agyapa Royalties deal is not resting any time soon as the debates and scrutiny continue. The latest to wade into the matter is Private Legal Practitioner, Yaw Oppong, who has argued that the Agyapa Royalties Limited agreement is no cast in stone, hence any future government can abrogate it.

As President Nana Akufo-Addo engages the public tonight for the 16th time on measures taken to deal with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is high anticipation among Ghanaians looking forward to the reopening of the country 39;s airports and borders post-lockdown The president has been engaging the public through LIVE nationwide broadcasts ever since the country recorded its first COVID-19 case.

More than 360,000 internally displaced persons in Chad’s Lake province are facing a “double” crisis, exposed to security and environmental risks, the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) has reported, highlighting the need to strengthen resilience of affected communities.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has condemned death threats made against Congolese Nobel Prize laureate Dr. Denis Mukwege and called for his protection.