Opposition parties reject Bashir’s declaration of emergency law

The Sudanese opposition parties have rejected president Bashir’s declaration of a state of emergency along the border with South Sudan and his vice president’s order to shoot anyone delivering humanitarian to the area. The Umma Party and the Popular Congress Party said establishing special courts is unconstitutional and against international conventions on human rights ratified by Sudan, as well as being destructive to the relationship between the two countries. The parties call on the international community to intervene to protect civilians subject to arbitrary killing and arrest outside of the law. Mariam Al Sadig of the Umma Party called this latest move a mistake pointing out that Sudanese nomadic tribes spend around eight months a year in South Sudanese territory. She added that the border areas have the most livestock in Africa and the Arab world, and that the tribes continually move between the Sudan and South Sudan. The secretary of political affairs for the Popular Congress Party, Kamal Omar Abdel Salam also told Radio Dabanga that the declaration of emergency law will surely endanger citizens in the border areas, subjecting them to extrajudicial murder and arrests.