♦ This week’s news in brief ♦
A compact weekly digest of Dabanga Sudan’s news highlights from Darfur and Sudan
A compact weekly digest of Dabanga Sudan's news highlights from Darfur and Sudan
♦ ‘Detained demonstrators mistreated in Sudan’: Opposition
Demonstrations calling for the unconditional step-down of President Omar Al Bashir and his regime, that has held power in Sudan for 30 years, continued throughout the capital of Khartoum and other Sudanese states. Internationally, Geneva, New York, Washington saw demonstrations in solidarity, and a round-table discussion on the transitional period in Sudan.
Four opposition leaders were released from months of detention on Saturday. Siddig Yousef, 88-year-old prominent leader of the Communist Party of Sudan, Ali Saeed, the party’s spokesman, Ali El Sanhouri, the secretary of the Arab Socialist Baath party, and activist Abdeljalil Osman were released.
he opposition Sudanese Congress Party has reported that their fellow detainees are not receiving health care in detention in El Obeid in North Kordofan. The party stated that accurate information confirms that the health of three political detainees is deteriorating due to deliberate neglect and failure to provide medical care in El Obeid. It has been reported that some are suffering from kidney disease. In addition, according to a BBC Africa Eye report last month, those detained in Khartoum face mistreatment through the means of 'The Fridge', a secret facility where the cold is used an instrument of torture.
Meanwhile a number of Sudanese scientists and university lecturers remain in NISS detention centres in Khartoum. Demonstrations continue to be held in the capital, Khartoum North, and Omdurman, including on Sunday, when a march held by signatories to the Declaration of Freedom and Change was met with tear gas, batons, and further detentions.
♦ Two returnees killed over tensions in Darfur
March 26 – 2019 ED DAEIN / KATILA Gunmen shot and killed two people in East Darfur on Sunday who had returned from the camp for displaced people to their home village. A source confirmed to Radio Dabanga that the victims had been displaced by conflict a long time ago and resided at En Neem camp in Ed Daein locality. They had returned to their village as part of the voluntary repatriation process for displaced people in Darfur. The source said that the motive for the shooting was to try to expel the returnees from their original villages and farms, in order to exploit their farms that have now been seized by armed groups.
Radio Dabanga frequently receives reports of attacks on displaced people who have returned to their villages and farms, carried out by militiamen or unidentified armed men. The insecurity discourages many displaced people from leaving the vast camps, despite of the large-scale voluntary return programmes set-up by the Sudanese Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) and international aid organisations.
In its latest humanitarian news bulletin covering the state of South Darfur, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that local peace committees discuss tensions between returnees and new settlers in their areas of origin. Here, “According to reports, all the returnees were able to access their farms without any problems.”OCHA does quote the local mission team's recommendations for “longer-term durable assistance such as enhancing protection by boosting police presence in the return village”.
More news from Radio Dabanga:
Sudanese journalists step-up press freedom protests
March 26 – 2019 KHARTOUM The Sudanese Journalists’ Network carried out a protest march in central Khartoum to demand freedom of the press on Monday, in the run-up…
Lack of fuel for transport, water pumps affects people, livestock in Sudan
March 26 – 2019 ED DAEIN / EL GEDAREF / ABU JUBEIHA The shortage of fuel and flour in many Sudanese states has resulted in numerous complaints by residents. In South…
Landmine blast kills two children in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains
March 25 – 2019 NUBA MOUNTAINS/OMDURMAN Two children are dead and three wounded in a landmine explosion in Heiban in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains. A fact-finding committee…
EU Ambassador: ‘Water is increasingly important in maintaining peace’
March 25 – 2019 DARFUR/El Gedaref/Kassala/Red Sea STATE On World Water Day, Ambassador Jean-Michel Dumond, Head of the EU Delegation to Sudan, said in a…
Darfur: SLM-AW pleads for aid to disease-stricken Jebel Marra
March 24 – 2019 JEBEL MARRA The Sudan Liberation Movement of the leadership of Abdelwahid El Nur (SLM-AW) has reiterated its call for rapid intervention by international…
Sudan uprising: 'Marches of Justice' across the country
March 22 – 2019 SUDAN On Thursday, thousands of Sudanese joined the ‘Marches of Justice’ in greater Khartoum and a number of other places in the country. Dozens have been …
Sudan's Al Bashir issues new Emergency Orders to curb ‘currency speculation’
March 22 – 2019 KHARTOUM On Thursday, President Al Bashir issued Emergency Orders number 6 and 7 forbidding storage and speculation of the national currency and amending…
Strike in Central Darfur after veterinarian beaten, humiliated
March 22 – 2019 ZALINGEI Veterinarians in Central Darfur called a strike on Thursday, in protest against the harassment, beating, and humiliation of a colleague by security…
Shaft collapse kills 35 South Darfur gold miners
March 21 – 2019 EL RADOOM At least 35 gold miners died at the Wad Nyala Mine in El Radoom locality in South Darfur this week when a mine shaft collapsed…
Economist: Protests cost Sudan $500 million
March 21 – 2019 KHARTOUM Former Minister of Finance and economist El Tijani El Tayeb has assessed the financial burden as a result of the ongoing protests in the country…
Lawyers: 530 cases referred to Sudan’s Emergency Courts in two weeks
March 20 – 2019 SUDAN At least 530 people have been prosecuted via the Emergency Courts in Sudan during the first two weeks of March. On Monday, Judge Ashraf Abdelbagi…
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