♦ This week’s news in brief ♦

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

♦ Sudan Call meetings conclude in Paris 

March 19 – 2018 PARIS The Sudan Call forces have accused the government of reneging on the African Union High-level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) roadmap agreement and stressed their non-relation to the National Dialogue or the implementation of its outputs.
In a statement on Saturday at the conclusion of a series of consultative meetings in Paris they said that the roadmap was based on UN Security Council resolutions No 456 and 539 which called for measures to create a conducive climate of stopping the war and providing freedoms.
The forces of the Sudan Call (also referred to as Sudan Appeal) are seeking an equal political process that would bring about a just peace, democracy and citizenship without discrimination.
The meeting stressed the need for the Sudanese regime to abide by the procedures and conditions of creating a conducive climate as an input to resolve the political crisis and called on AUHIP to act for the release of the political detainees in the country.
On the side-lines of the Sudan Call meetings in Paris, eastern Sudanese political parties and civil society organisations signed a Memorandum of Understanding to form a political umbrella and agree on the basic principles to resolve the issues of the region.
The memorandum, signed by the secretary-general of the Beja Congress, the head of the United Popular Front for Liberation and Justice, and a representative of civil society organisations in eastern sudan, called for ensuring the effective and equitable participation of the people of eastern Sudan in power. They also pointed to the challenges of the spread of arms, human trafficking, smuggling, and the indigenisation of El Bedoon in the region.

Continue reading

♦ Suspected cholera numbers continue to drop in Central Darfur

March 21 – 2018 NIERTETI Isolation centres in the town of Nierteti and its surrounding villages in Central Darfur continue to receive new cases of acute watery diarrhoea – suspected to be cholera – however medics are cautiously optimistic that the outbreak is past its critical peak.
Voluntary work activists reported to Radio Dabanga that on Tuesday the isolation ward in the hospital of Nierteti received four new cases, the centre of Korifal village recorded two cases and Mara one case.
One of the sources said nine patients in total were still being being treated in the three centres of Nierteti, Mara and Korifal, but the centre of Turr is empty and that the centre of Kuweila village has only one old case.
In spite of numerous independent confirmations (conducted according to World Health Organisation (WHO) standards) that the disease which broke out in Blue Nile State in August 2016 was cholera, the Sudanese authorities and several international organisations still call it ‘acute watery diarrhoea’.
The spread of the infectious disease in Sudan last year turned into epidemic proportions. The WHO and the Sudanese Ministry of Health reported in mid-October that the total number of recorded cases reached more than 35,000 people – including 800 related deaths. Doctors of Sudan’s National Epidemiological Corporation reported in early July however, that nearly 24,000 Sudanese had been infected and 940 cholera patients died

.

More news from Radio Dabanga:

Central Darfur sheikh abducted, merchants beaten by RSF

March 20 – 2018 DIMO The Sheikh of Dimo village, 35 km north of Nierteti in Central Darfur, was beaten and abducted by members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia on Saturday. 

Angry doctors threaten to leave South Darfur

March 19 – 2018 NYALA Doctors at the Nyala Teaching Hospital have threatened to leave South Darfur if the state Health Minister does not apologise for expelling a specialist and rebuking …

1,000+ homes destroyed in East Darfur camp inferno

March 19 – 2018 ED DAEIN A massive fire destroyed more than 1,000 homes in the displaced camps district of Ed Daein on East Darfur. No human casualties were reported, however the …

Arrests, fines after North Darfur land protest

March 18 – 2018 TEITEL Residents of Teitel in Mellit locality, North Darfur were reportedly beaten an assaulted by police and militiamen when they protested the redistribution of their land …

‘Dangerous nuclear radiation’ in Port Sudan

March 16 – 2018 PORT SUDAN Sudan’s Atomic Energy Commission and the Federal Safety Administration have acknowledged that there is ‘dangerous nuclear radiation’ at a dump …

New settlers assault, drive-off East Darfur returnees

March 15 – 2018 ED DAEIN Two displaced people who returned to Areit village in Asalaya locality in East Darfur were injured and forcibly returned in an attack by new settlers who refused …

Sudan press harassment: El Tayyar newspaper held for ninth consecutive day

March 15 – 2018 KHARTOUM Agents of the Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) held the print run of Sudan’s El Tayyar newspaper on Wednesday, only releasing …

EU Parliament calls on Sudan to release human rights defenders

March 14 – 2018 STRASBOURG A plenary session of the Parliament of the European Union in Strasbourg on Tuesday tabled a resolution demanding that the government of Sudan …

New tactics by NISS cripple Sudan’s press

March 14 – 2018 KHARTOUM New methods and tactics employed by Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) to curb the press are inflicting severe financial …