♦ This week’s news in brief ♦

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

♦ Sudanese in Juba want evacuation as fighting subdues

July 12 – 2016 JUBA / KHARTOUM The renewed fighting in Juba between South Sudanese government forces and opposition troops of the SPLM-IO that started on Friday has claimed many lives; the toll in the first day alone has been set on 270 confirmed dead. Clashes subdued today, but a Sudanese committee for evacuations said that there are 3,000 Sudanese citizens who want to be evacuated [ ] from Juba.

After South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and First Vice-President Riek Machar ordered a ceasefire and their troops to return to their respective barracks early Monday evening, dawn broke over the capital city on Tuesday without the sound of gunfire.
More than 7,000 residents have been displaced and fled en masse to UN Protection of Civilians (PoC) sites, according to the UN Mission in South Sudan (Unmiss). It remains unclear what sparked the clashes. The first gunfire erupted on Thursday outside the presidential palace as President Kiir, Machar and Vice-President Wani Igga were meeting inside, on the eve of South Sudan's independence anniversary.

The fighting, that continued for four days prompted the UN and Sudanese politicians to call on the fighters to stop and implement the peace agreement that they signed almost one year ago. Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir phoned to President Kiir and First Vice-President Machar to urge them to avoid further bloodshed between the government's SPLM and Machar's SPLM-IO troops. On Tuesday the Council of Minister of the East African bloc IGAD has demanded the opening of humantiarian corridors and reopening of the Juba Airport under the protection of UN peacekeepers (Unmiss).

This August marks the one-year anniversary of the signing of the peace deal between the formerly warring Kiir and Machar.

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♦ EU diverts development funds to finance armies

July 6 – 2016 STRASBOURG The European Commission and High Representative put forward measures that would assist partner countries in border and migration management activities, including in Sudan, as part of a larger effort to stop people from fleeing to Europe.

The legislative proposal by European Commission and High Representative Federica Mogherini last week would financially cover the military development and human security-related tasks in partner countries, such as border and migration management activities, but also mine clearing and demobilisation of ex-combatants.

The Sudanese military may benefit from the EU assistance. Starting last June, Sudan has stationed its paramilitary forces in the western desert near the Sudanese-Libyan border. Last week the military commander claimed the arrest of more than 300 illegal immigrants who were reportedly travelling to Libya to cross the sea to Europe, however, these reports have not been verified and the nationalities of the immigrants were not disclosed.

For the EU Commission's draft proposal, money initially planned for development aid would be diverted to border control management and other proposed measures. The European Commission recently funded the Sudanese government with €155 million in order to tackle the root causes of irregular migration in the country and improve migration management processes.

According to the UN Refugee agency (UNHCR), Sudan is one of the main transit countries of Eritreans and Somalis who travel to Italy by sea – two of the largest groups of immigrants arriving in Europe.

Other highlights from Radio Dabanga:

Priests sentenced after clash with Khartoum police

July 12 – 2016 KHARTOUM NORTH The Bahri Criminal Court in Khartoum sentenced 14 people, including several priests of the Bahri Evangelical Church, to paying a fine for clashing with police that tried to vacate their church last Thursday. The…

'No Oppression Against Women' active in Sudan's capital

July 11 – 2016 KHARTOUM The Sudanese No Oppression Against Women Initiative strongly denounces the Khartoum state Public Order Act. According to Amira Osman, one of the founders of the Initiative, “this law seems to designed…

Barrel bomb kills three in Darfur's East Jebel Marra

July 10 – 2016 EAST JEBEL MARRA A woman and two children were killed in an air raid west of Deribat in East Jebel Marra, on Saturday. “An Antonov of the Sudanese Air Force began bombing the area of Lobi at 6 am,” a villager told…

West Darfur village raided, two women raped

July 8 – 2016 FORO BARANGA Two women were raped during an attack on a village in Foro Baranga in West Darfur last Tuesday. A number of people sustained injuries when they were beaten by the attackers when they robbed the villagers. A…

Aid reduced for Nuba refugees in South Sudan's Yida

July 7 – 2016 YIDA REFUGEE CAMP The humanitarian organisations working in the South Sudanese Yida camp for refugees from South Kordofan continue to phase out their services. The aid activities at the Yida refugee camp in South…

'Sudan security should focus on human trafficking, not on activists'

July 7 – 2016 PORT SUDAN The Sudanese government is not making appropriate efforts to combat human trafficking, says Idris Shedli, president of the East Sudanese El Tawasol party. In an interview with Radio Dabanga on Wednesday, Shedli described…

Sudan Appeal forces expected to sign Roadmap, Abdelwahid refrains

July 7 – 2016 CAIRO / PARIS The Sudanese opposition forces allied under the Sudan Appeal will most likely sign an adjusted version of the Roadmap, proposed by the AU mediation team, according to El Sadig El Mahdi, president of the National Umma Party (NUP). The…

'Ethiopian gunmen attack farmers': witness in eastern Sudan

July 6 – 2016 EL GEDAREF A number of farmers and herdsmen were slain by gunmen in separate incidents in the border strip adjacent to Ethiopia this week. Ethiopian gunmen launched the attacks on residents of Sudan's El…

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