Africa

January 2, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - The irrigation ministers of Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia will resume talks Sunday to discuss ways to establish a mediation team after nine years of endless direct talks over the Renaissance Dam.

On November 21, 2020, Sudan suspended its participation in the talks on the first filing of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) as the other parties declined its call for a new approach after nine years of futile negotiation.

The resumption of Sudanese participation comes after an agreement reached by Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok and his Ethiopian counterpart, Abiy Ahmed, on December 13.

"The acting Foreign Minister, Omer Gamar Eldin, and Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas will participate in the ministerial meeting on the GERD which will take place on Sunday," said the official news agency SUNA on Saturday.

"The meeting will discuss Sudan's proposal to re-energize the negotiations by giving a greater role to the African Union through its experts to reach a binding legal agreement on the Renaissance Dam," stressed the statement.

The meeting is expected to examine a draft understanding prepared by the African Union experts to reach a satisfactory agreement for the three parties.

The Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, will chair the ministerial virtual meeting.

The three parties differ on technical and legal issues, including the need or no for a binding agreement, the future dispute settlement mechanism, the years needed for filling the GERD reservoir and how to manage the dam during periods of reduced rainfall or drought.

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January 2, 2021 - (KHARTOUM) - The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) led by Gibril Ibrahim has to admit its responsibility for the murder of splinter commanders in order to engage in a reconciliation process, said a JEM faction led by Abdel Karim Dabajo.

Mohamed Bashar (ST)

On December 30, 2020, the deputy head of the Sovereign Council Mohamed Hamdan Daglo ''Hemetti" launched a traditional process to pardon JEM leader Gibril Ibrahim for the murder of Mohamed Bashar and Arko Dahia the leaders of the splinter group in May 2013.

"The first step (to settle the case) is the recognition of the Gabriel Ibrahim's movement that they committed this heinous crime," said Nahar Osman Nahar the political secretary of JEM-Dabajo in statements to the Sudan Tribune on Saturday.

Nahar further said that the retribution or pardon remains the (private) right of the families of the dead and affected, in line with the Sudanese traditions. However, he added that their movement has the "public right" without elaborating on its nature.

Bashar and the movement political leadership were killed after the signing of a peace agreement in Doha in an ambush when they crossed the Chadian border heading to Khartoum.

The attack had been condemned by the UN Security Council and the regional mediation.

Hemetti said his mediation aims to prevent revenge attacks and violence between the two groups.

The lawsuit had been suspended to create a suitable atmosphere for the ongoing efforts to settle the dispute led by the paramount chief of the Rizeigat tribe.

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January 2, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - The Public Prosecutor office has arrested the former director of the forensic medicine authority, Hisham Zain-Alabidin, and the suspended director of the Omdurman morgue, Jamal Youssef, for the illegal burial of the victims of the attack on the pro-democracy sit-in on 3 June 2019.

On 11 November 2020, the public prosecutor found mass graves near the Al-Markhiyat Mountains northwest of Omdurman containing the remains of civilians who were killed during a bloody attack by security forces and militiamen outside the army headquarters.

Ten days later, the head of the prosecutor committee on enforced disappearances, al-Tayeb Ahmed Al-Abbas, decided to "exhume all mass graves and re-autopsy the bodies."

“The Committee arrested the director of the Omdurman morgue, Jamal Youssef, and the former director of the forensic medicine board, Hisham Zain-Alabidin,” judicial officials told the Sudan Tribune on Saturday.

The arrest of Youssef and Zain-Alabidin came against the background of "investigations related to the burial of bodies related to the attack on the sit-in in violation of the legal procedures."

Over 200 people were killed during the brutal on peaceful protesters however, the health authorities said that the number of the victims reached 85 peoples.

Recently, Youssef was suspended from office and investigated for issuing a medical report clearing Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of criminal wrongdoing in the death of a civilian who died in a detention facility on 20 December 2020.

Activists on social media circulated numerous violations committed by the suspended director of the Omdurman morgue, including the sale of unidentified bodies to be used in the training of students of medical colleges.

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A border dispute has led to armed clashes, deepening fears about insecurity in the region.

January 1, 2021 (GADAREF) - The number of Ethiopian refugees in eastern Sudan has increased to nearly 61,000 people as a result of the renewal of clashes in the northern region of Tigray.

The UNHCR and Sudan refugees body (COR) in their latest bulletin several days ago said they have registered over 54,411 Ethiopian refugees in Kassala's Hamdayet centre, Ludgi and Abderafi centres of Gedaref, and Wad Al-Mahi centre of the Blue Nile state.

However, more refugees have arrived in Sudan following recent clashes in the Tigray region.

"The military clashes between the federal army and the Tigray People's Liberation Front have resumed since Tuesday," Sudanese officials told the Sudan Tribune on Thursday.

The Sudanese military intelligence arrested 45 TPLF fighters in Hamdayet reception centre and they were transferred to the army's headquarters, the sources further said.

The sources which are not authorized to speak to the press said renewed military clashes led to the influx of refugees, as the number reached about 61,000. Also, thousands of refugees are expected to cross into Sudan in the coming days.

A refugee told Sudan Tribune that they had travelled on foot from their areas through the cities of Birkuta and Moya Khadra before to reach, the Hamdayet Center.

In a related development, Amhara and Tigray refugees in Um Rakoba camp clashed as some refugees urged from the absence of Sudanese police in the camp. While others said that the aid workers have to avoid placing refugees from the two ethnic groups in the same camp.

UNFPA Sudan estimates that amongst the refugees there are over 13,500 of which more than1200 are pregnant, with around 130 live births expected in the coming month.

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January 1, 2020 (KHARTOUM) - Egypt slammed statements by an Ethiopian government official for stating that Cairo has been seeking to hamper the construction of a giant dam on the Blue Nile to distract its people from internal problems

Dina Mufti, the former Ethiopian Ambassador to Egypt and Foreign Ministry Spokesman recently said that the Egyptian government uses the filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam to divert the attention f its people from internal problems

On Wednesday 30 December, the Egyptian foreign ministry said that the Ethiopian chargé d'affaires had been summoned to explain Mufti's statements in which he touched on the Egyptian internal affairs.

Egypt "condemned these statements which are considered a blatant transgression," reads a statement released by the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Ahmed Hafez on Thursday.

Hafez stressed that such an offence against his country is a continuation of the Ethiopian government's approach aiming to use a hostile tone and fuelling emotions to cover its "multiple failures domestically and externally".

He went further to speak to the ongoing internal troubles in the Tigray and Benishangul regions as well as the "constant tensions and instability in the Oromia region". Also, he referred to the ongoing border tensions with Sudan.

On 31 December, the head of the Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan reacted to statements by the Spokesman of the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry who said that Sudanese army had carried out inside Ethiopia.

The Sudanese armed forces "have not and will not cross international borders or attack neighbouring Ethiopia," said al-Burhan.

Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan have to resume meetings on the GERD in the upcoming days in a long process that has been continuing for nine years.

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