♦ Sudan: This week’s news in brief ♦

A compact digest of the past week’s most-read highlights, from the heart of Sudan. Subscribe to receive this digest weekly in your inbox.

Sudan: Minawi secures Darfur aid delivery agreement

21/03/2024 – PORT SUDAN / KALMA / KASS / TUR. Darfur Governor Minni Minawi said that an agreement was made with the United Nations (UN) and other humanitarian agencies in the region to facilitate the transport of humanitarian aid from Port Sudan to Darfur. In a briefing after the meeting in Port Sudan, Minawi told reporters that humanitarian aid from neighbouring countries will also be delivered via El Tina border crossing with Chad, adding he “will work to address the concerns of all governmental and international organisations to provide assistance to Sudanese in need”.
 
Minawi also expressed grave concerns about the looming threat of famine in the region, “particularly as the summer season commences”. Displaced camp residents in Central and South Darfur report a distressing rise in malnutrition-related fatalities among children and the elderly over the past week.

SAF-RSF battles rage unabated across Sudan

20/03/2024 – OMDURMAN / KHARTOUM / EL FASHER / WAD MADANI / BABANOUSA. Battles and skirmishes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continue in several theatres across the country. Both sides are accused of violations.

The RSF renewed their attack on the Signal Corps base area in Kober in Khartoum North (Khartoum Bahri) whilst the SAF claimed to have “repelled the third attack of its kind in two days”. Earlier this week, the army took control of the strategic Wad El Bashir bridge that links Omdurman with Um Rawaba in North Kordofan. Fighting also continued in El Gezira, El Gedaref, and West Kordofan.

IGAD appoints South Sudanese diplomat as Special Envoy for Sudan
27/03/2024 – DJIBOUTI / ENTEBBE / PORT SUDAN. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) announced their appointment of Hon. Lawrence Korbandy, a South Sudanese diplomat and lawyer, as Special Envoy for Sudan.
 
Sudan: RSF establish civilian authority in El Gezira
26/03/2024 – WAD MADANI. The RSF, in control of most parts of El Gezira, have formed a native administration system in the state. Siddig Osman was elected head of the new authority in a ceremony in the state capital Wad Madani on Saturday.
 
Minawi’s Sudan Liberation Movement to fight alongside army
25/03/2024 – ATBARA / OMDURMAN. The Sudan Liberation Movement breakaway faction led by Minni Minawi has chosen to fight with the SAF in its war against the RSF in Khartoum and El Gezira. Gen Yasir El Atta, deputy commander of the army, repeated his refusal to negotiate with RSF commanders and told his troops in Omdurman that they will continue to fight ‘until victory’.
 
Civilians dead and injured in Sudan air strikes and raids
24/03/2024 – WEST KORDOFAN / EL GEZIRA. At least a dozen civilians have been reported killed and many more wounded, in ongoing air strikes and ground operations by the warring SAF and the RSF in Sudan’s West Kordofan and El Gezira states.
 
US envoy to Sudan hopes SAF-RSF talks will resume after Ramadan
22/03/2024 – LONDON. US Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello has expressed his hope that talks between the SAF and the RSF will resume following the Eid El Fitr, concluding Ramadan, on April 8.
 
Sudan Civil Democratic Forces: ‘Leaked document slanderously attributed to Hamdok, SPA’
21/03/2024 – ADDIS ABABA. A ‘leaked’ document purporting to be a proposal to resolve the war in Sudan, has been falsely attributed to former Sudan Prime Minister and chair of the Civil Democratic Forces (Tagaddum, meaning progress in Arabic) Abdalla Hamdok, and the Sudanese Professional Association (SPA) according to the spokesperson for Tagaddum, Alaaeldin Nugud.
 
US pledges $47 million to aid Sudan humanitarian crisis
21/03/2024 – WASHINGTON D.C. Acknowledging Sudan as “the largest humanitarian crisis in the world”, the USA has pledged more than $47 million toward the emergency response in Sudan and “host communities” in neighbouring countries, including Chad and South Sudan.
 
Community leaders detained in Central Darfur as they refuse to cooperate with RSF
20/03/2024 – UM DUKHUN. The RSF detained six people, including tribal leaders and administrators, in Um Dukhun, Central Darfur, in the past two days. The paramilitaries insist on a 50 per cent share of the locality’s revenues.
 
Measles spreading in Sudan, rabies in South Kordofan
19/03/2024 – DELLING / BURAM. At least 27 children suffer from measles in camps for the displaced in Delling in South Kordofan. Cases of rabies were also recorded. In Buram in South Darfur, measles and diarrhoea are also spreading. Medics report a dire scarcity of medicines.
 
SPLM-N condemns Sudanese Air Force bombing of Nuba village school
18/03/2024 – DALAMI. At least 14 people, most of them children, were killed in an airstrike launched by an Antonov of the Sudanese Air Force on El Hadra village in the Nuba Mountains, South Kordofan, on Thursday. Three other places were also hit. The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North under the leadership of Abdelaziz El Hilu (SPLM-N El Hilu) strongly condemned the attack.
 
Human Rights Watch: UN chief to send ‘white paper’ on Sudan to Security Council
16/03/2024 – NEW YORK. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expected to alert the Security Council in the coming days that Sudan has entered a downward spiral of extreme conflict-induced hunger, Human Rights Watch said