‘Remarkable calm’ in Port Sudan after week of violence

On Wednesday, a ‘remarkable calm’ reportedly retuned to Port Sudan, capital of Red Sea state, following several days of violent tribal clashes that have left at least 35 people dead and scored injured.

The Red Sea state doctors’ committee, who estimated the death toll at 34  reported that another person was killed in Port Sudan on Tuesday evening, however, the city witnessed a remarkable calm on Wednesday. A 100-vehicle strong unit of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Sudan’s main government militia, also arrived in the city on Wednesday.

The official Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reports that the acting Attorney General, Abdallah Ahmed, arrived in Port Sudan on Tuesday 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. The Attorney-General also arrived in Port Sudan to identify the incidents and receive a report.

Witnesses reported to Radio Dabanga that a number of houses were torched in Riyadh district.

Forum for peaceful coexistence

Eastern Sudanese activists staged three solidarity stands in El Gedaref on Wednesday morning in support of peaceful coexistence in Port Sudan. They also held a forum for peaceful coexistence yesterday evening.

Participants in vigils in front of the Port Sudan Teaching Hospital, the Karari bus station, and the Bank of Sudan carried banners condemning the events of Port Sudan and calling for the renunciation of tribalism, racism and peaceful coexistence.

The vigils demanded that the government do more to stop the bloodshed in Port Sudan.

State of Emergency

As reported by Radio Dabanga 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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