Calm returns in Port Sudan, eastern Sudan conference to start this week

On Monday, the Red Sea state capital of Port Sudan witnessed remarkable calm after four days of tribal fighting. The three-day eastern Sudan consultative conference that will start in Khartoum on Saturday will be the basis for an inclusive conference on the region.

The Red Sea state authorities temporarily lifted the curfew in the harbour city on Monday, except for the districts where the clashes took place, journalist El Amin Sinada told Radio Dabanga.

Port Sudan “did not witness any clashes or violence on Monday,” he said. “It only happened that a group of young men wearing uniforms shaved the hair of a number of youths, like the Rapid Support Forces militia did with youngsters in the city in July last year.”

Sinada considered these practices “a violation that requires accountability”.

Yesterday, Radio Dabanga reported that 14 people died in clashes between Beni amer tribesmen in Port Sudan and Nuba settlers during the past three days. 115 people sustained injuries.

The Security and Defence Council, headed by the Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, chairman of the Sovereign Council, deployed additional forces to the city.

Comprehensive

The Eastern Sudan Initiative of the University of Khartoum demanded in a statement on Monday that the eastern Sudan consultative conference, to be held in Khartoum between January 11-13, be comprehensive.

The conference should pave the way for the inclusive conference proposed by eastern Sudanese community leaders who attended the peace talks in Juba, which will address the marginalisation and the roots of conflicts in the East.

According to the statement, the inclusive conference which the University of Khartoum will co-organise later, is “the appropriate forum for addressing the roots of chronic injustices that happened and are happening in eastern Sudan”.

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