♦ This week’s news in brief ♦

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

♦ Sudan Appeal forces sign AU peace roadmap in Addis

August 8 – 2016 ADDIS ABABA The leaders of the National Umma Party and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North, the Justice and Equality Movement, and the breakaway Sudan Liberation Movement signed the roadmap for the Sudanese peace talks in the Ethiopian capital on Monday.

The roadmap, prepared by the AU high-level Implementation Panel (AUHIP), had awaited the opposition's signature for nearly five months. Delegates of the Sudanese government had already signed the agreement in March.

The roadmap has two main components: for the parties to agree on a cessation of hostilities, and political negotiations on Blue Nile, South Kordofan and Darfur, and to negotiate about the National Dialogue process in Sudan.

The opposition group, known as the Sudan Appeal, had so far refused to sign the roadmap, but progress was made to bring the parties closer together during meetings in Paris last month.

After the signing the attention will now immediately turn to developing an accord on the cessation of hostilities in the states of Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile. The Troika (Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States), Germany and the European Union urged the fresh signatories to quickly agree on a ceasefire with the Sudanese government.

The head of the Sudanese government negotiating delegation, Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid vowed to enter into negotiations with the Sudan Appeal after the signing of the deal on Monday; his delegation left for Addis Ababa that evening.

♦ Sudanese Unamid staff suspend strike this week

August 8 – 2016 EL FASHER A dispute between Unamid and striking Sudanese staff members has run up as the mission decried the disruption of operations in North Darfur, caused by the open-ended strike.

“Any action by staff members that may negatively impact mandate delivery or disrupt daily operations, should be avoided,” according to a press statement by the African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission on 4 August. “The strike has been accompanied by reports of attempts to disrupt the Mission’s operations by locking entry gates to key areas in the Mission’s headquarters in El Fasher and coercing non-participating staff members as well as individual contractors not to perform their duties.” The head of the mission's national staff union claimed that the reports were incorrect.

The Sudanese staff members of the mission embarked on a strike on 28 July to enforce their demands for the payment of their salaries in US Dollars instead of Sudanese currency, as was decided for national staff on the payroll of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in February. Also on their list of demands are issues related to health insurance, pensions, replacement of imported international staff with local Sudanese, and capacity building.

Now, the strikers have decided to suspend their current protest from Monday until Thursday, in response to the commitment of the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Field Support to discuss the strikers’ demands this week.

More highlights from Radio Dabanga:

Five raped in Darfur's East Jebel Marra

August 9 – 2016 KATOR / TABIT Five women were raped by marauding gunmen in separate incidents in East Jebel Marra, Darfur on Sunday. Five men in military uniforms attacked three young women, aged 17, 20, and 21, as they tilled farms east…

Four more displaced who met US envoy held in Central Darfur

August 7 – 2016 NIERTETI Agents of the Sudanese security apparatus detained four displaced people in Nierteti in Central Darfur on Friday and Saturday. The detention of the four camp residents brings the number of displaced people who…

Social media special: The Messi shirt Bashir fell for

August 5 – 2016 DABANGA SUDAN In Sudan little news spreads faster than on social media. And so, two stories were extensively hailed and torn down during turbulent media days for President Omar Al Bashir. Radio Dabanga highlights…

Rains, floods destroy hundreds of South Darfur homes

August 7 – 2016 KATILA / KALMA CAMP Heavy rainfall and floods destroyed hundreds of houses in Katila in South Darfur on Friday. Kalma camp for the displaced near the state capital Nyala has turned into a mud bath. Abakar El Tom, Deputy…

Italian, Sudan police agree to cooperate on migration

August 5 – 2016 ROME On Wednesday, the Italian Chief of Police and his Sudanese counterpart reached an understanding on the issue of migration, as part of the broader cooperation between the European Union and Khartoum and the EU Emergency Trust Fund…

‘Tough negotiations ahead for Sudan’: Jibril Ibrahim

August 4 – 2016 SUDAN The leadership of Sudan’s Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), Dr Jibril Ibrahim, has predicted that all parties face ‘tough negotiations’ once the remaining opposition forces have signed the AUHIP roadmap in Addis Ababa next week…

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