Port Sudan conflict abates

The violence and conflict in Port Sudan have abated over the past two days, following the arrival of forces from outside the state and the appointment of a new governor. Activists launched a social media campaign in which the singers Sidi Doshka and Insaf Fathi called for social peace in the city.

The activists’ peaceful coexistence initiative not only included singers, but also lawyers and writers. They asked the Prime Minister to visit the area and meet with the conflicting parties. They also discussed the role of lawyers in ending the conflict as well as supervision of the newly arrived forces.

The activists stressed the role of public pressure on the state government to intervene rigorously and work hard in the media and in the cultural sector to establish peace. They also stressed the need to integrate student associations in the initiative and organised a campaign to prepare a number of schools to accommodate the families whose homes were burned during the unrest.

The official Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reports that the acting  Attorney General, Abdalla Ahmed Abdalla, arrived in Port Sudan yesterday evening to investigate the incidents in Red Sea state and to receive a report about these incidents from the Head of Public Prosecution in the state. Immediately after his arrival in Port Sudan, the Attorney General had a meeting with the state security committee to be informed on details of the recent violence.

State of Emergency

As previously reported by Radio Dabanga earlier, on Sunday, the Sovereign Council decided to dismiss the governor and the head of the security service of Red Sea state and to declare a State of Emergency in Port Sudan, as part of a series of measures to contain the clashes between Beni Amer tribesman and displaced Nuba from South Kordofan that broke out in the city on Wednesday.

The warring parties signed a truce on Saturday evening, when the number of victims of tribal clashes in the city had risen to more than 26 dead and about 200 injured, and dozens of houses burned.

The truce, which was signed in the presence of the governor and a delegation of the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC), provides for the intervention of regular forces and the obligation of the conflicting parties to pay a fine of SDG 6 million to the authorities in case of a breach of the agreement. Witnesses reported the burning of a limited number of houses on Sunday morning, after the signing of the agreement.

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