♦ This week’s news in brief ♦

A compact weekly digest of Dabanga Sudan's highlights of the news from Darfur and Sudan

♦ Surviving the Antonovs in Darfur

March 22 – 2016 EAST JEBEL MARRA Many people in Darfur recognise the sound of the Antonov aircraft of the Sudanese Air Force. The converted Russian-made cargo aircraft are infamous in the western region of Sudan because their arrival means the indiscriminate bombing of villages. Civilians living in these danger zones in Darfur, however, manage to flee and outwit the terrifying Antonovs.

“Since the war erupted in Darfur in 2003, we have never had a rest from the Antonovs. It always circles around this area, bombing everything,” a resident of Leeba village in East Jebel Marra complains. He thinks that because of the geological structure of the Jebel Marra massif, the pilots have no idea where their bombs will fall.

The Antonovs are only capable of rolling barrel bombs out of their cargo hatch. The barrels, filled with shrapnel and high explosives, are thus far from accurate. Luckily, another villager says, people can avoid the explosions because the bombs are dropped from a high altitude. “By the time it is comes near the ground you can see it, run to the opposite direction, and hide.”

Not all of the crude barrel bombs explode. The children are taught not to approach the unexploded bombs: the adults carefully gather the explosives, circle them with thorns, and post a red cloth on top of it as a warning.

Enriched with deep caves, high mountains, and wide valleys, East Jebel Marra provides some protection from both air raids as military ground operations that are aimed against the armed rebels. The villagers in Leeba have learned to draw the attention of the Air Force pilots by laying-down shimmering metal about half a kilometre away from their farms or villages. From the air, the metal looks like the rooves of houses. “A bright metal pot will often distract the pilot because he assumes it is the target, and drops his bombs there,” a farmer says.

One of the villagers points to a small radio on which he listens to Radio Dabanga. “We always make sure that the FM is on when we hear an Antonov, so you can hear what pilots say and where they plan to drop the bombs. It helps us to run into the opposite direction. When they are distracted you can hear them shout and curse.”

Most houses in East Jebel Marra have a roof of zinc, making it a prominent target for the Air Force as it shines in the sun. Villagers started to cover the rooves with grass and straw. Others have built their houses on mountain tops, as a lookout for danger and to watch over the people living down in the valley.

Almost no one in East Jebel Marra keeps their precious property in their house, where it is at risk of being stolen by militiamen who frequently raid the villages. People have figured out a way to keep their possessions safe: buried in storage rooms dug deep in the ground.

The hole, usually about four metres deep, is dug at night so that only trusted family members know its location. It is sealed with big stones and they “are absolutely safe”, one of the villagers says. “This is our land, we are not going anywhere, and we therefore have to create new ways to encounter this situation. We have no place else to go.”

By Kamal Elsadig

♦ Sudan opposition refuse to sign AUHIP roadmap

March 22 – 2016 ADDIS ABABA The opposition forces attending the consultative meeting under auspices of the AU High-level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) refused to sign a roadmap agreement prepared by the AU chief mediator, Thabo Mbeki, to end the armed conflicts in Darfur, Blue Nile, and South Kordofan, and on the National Dialogue. The government delegation and the chief mediator signed the document.

The AUHIP-brokered “strategic consultation meeting” began in the Ethiopian capital on Friday. It was attended by a delegation of the Sudanese government, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), the Sudan Liberation Movement faction led by Minni Minawi (SLM-MM), the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), and the National Umma Party (NUP). After the opposition refused to sign the AUHIP roadmap, Mbeki left for Khartoum to brief President Al Bashir on the outcome of the meeting.

In an interview with Radio Dabanga, Minawi commented that “Mediator Mbeki saw himself as the other party in the conflict and signed the paper, together with the Sudanese government.” According to the rebel leader, the AUHIP chairman intends to circumvent the preparatory National Dialogue meeting, to be held in Addis Ababa, as proposed by the AU Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) on 25 August 2015 in its Resolution 539. This pre-Dialogue meeting is supposed to discuss measures that the government should implement before the process, in order to create a conducive environment.

Khartoum categorically refuses to hold the National Dialogue abroad, and has repeatedly invited the rebel movements to Khartoum to join the process on Sudanese territory. The allied rebel movements have repeatedly maintained that they will not participate in a Dialogue that is arranged solely by the ruling party.

Abdelmonim El Jak, Chief Executive of the Sudanese Democracy First Group, explained the content of the roadmap agreement proposed by the AU mediator: “The roadmap is based on two main components. The first one concerns a cessation of hostilities, a comprehensive ceasefire, and political negotiations on the Two Areas (Blue Nile and South Kordofan) and Darfur, while the second component is related to the National Dialogue process, in particular to the stances of the ruling National Congress Party.”

El Jak stated that it was envisaged that as soon as the warring parties have signed the roadmap, the attention would turn to an accord on the cessation of hostilities in Darfur and the Two Areas, followed by an agreement on a ceasefire, and on political solutions for Darfur. 

“Immediately after these accords, the opposition was supposed to reach an agreement with members of the Dialogue Mechanism in Addis Ababa about arrangements for the opposition groups to attend the National Dialogue in Khartoum.” 

Assistant to the President, Ibrahim Mahmoud, who headed the government delegation, expressed the hope that the opposition groups would sign the roadmap later as well.

Other highlights from Dabanga Sudan:

ICG report: 'Sudan's Islamists, from Salvation to Survival'

March 21 – 2016 BRUSSELS There is an ideological vacuum at the heart of Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP). Its leaders are no longer interested in a radical or reforming Islamist project, but offer….

Two children die, Sortony strafed in Darfur air raids

March 20 – 2016 SUNI / SORTONY Two children were killed in an air raid on Suni village in South Darfur's East Jebel Marra today. Nine more barrel bombs dropped were by an Antonov of the Sudanese Air Force on two…

Darfur rebels claim victory in southwest Jebel Marra

March 20 – 2016 KUTRUM / EL TINA The Sudan Liberation Movement led by Abdel Wahid El Nur (SLM-AW) has stated that its rebel fighters killed 13 army soldiers and militiamen in the area of Rari in the south-western…

'No basic services' in eastern Sudan's Haya

March 20 – 2016 HAYA The population in the area southeast of Haya in Red Sea State complain of a lack of basic services. A mining company has obtained permission to operate in a mining block in the locality. “The about…

Five anti-dam activists detained in Wadi Halfa, Sudan

March 17 – 2016 WADI HALFA On Tuesday, agents of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) detained five members of the Committee Against the Dal Dam and shut-down the Nile Club in Wadi Halfa…

'Religious discrimination in Sudan creates space for extremism': SDFG

March 16 – 2016 KAMPALA Since the National Islamic Front took power by military coup in 1989, Sudan has witnessed a significant clampdown on religious freedom, the Sudan Democracy First Group (SDFG) says in a…

Sudanese journalist released in Saudi Arabia, El Sudani gagged

March 16 – 2016 KHARTOUM The Journalists’ Association for Human Rights (JAHR) has welcomed the release of Waleed El Hussein by the Saudi authorities last week. On Tuesday, security agents confiscated…

Dozens of South Darfur tribesmen transferred to Port Sudan prison

March 16 – 2016 NYALA 84 Fellata and Salamat tribesmen detained under the South Darfur emergency measures last month were transferred from Nyala to Port Sudan on Saturday. The tribesmen were held in late…

This digest is an excerpt from the weekly Darfur & Sudan News Update. Subscribe to the newsletter here