♦ This week’s news in brief ♦

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

♦ Journalists blocked as El Mahdi welcomed back in Sudan

January 27 – 2017 KHARTOUM / OMDURMAN Thousands of Sudanese rallied to receive Imam El Sadig El Mahdi, the President of the National Umma Party, who returned to Khartoum after an exile of more than two years on Thursday afternoon. The prominent leader said he wants to resign from the Umma party.

Journalists were unable to report on El Mahdi's arrival as the security serviced prevented them from entering Khartoum airport. According to the Sudanese Journalists Network, members of the security apparatus beat and held journalist Abdelbasit Idris detained for some time and confiscated his mobile phone.

In the city, a large crowd of people moved in a procession (video) toward El Hijra Mosque in Wad Nubawi, where the opposition leader was greeted. The former Prime-Minister of Sudan addressed the thousands of people in a speech, welcoming the release of a number of political detainees by the Sudanese authorities recently, and a decision of a cessation of hostilities for six months. “However this measure requires agreement with other parties as well as the agreement on monitoring it.” He said to exert “all possible efforts for the flow of aid to ensure that it reaches the intended recipients”.

El Mahdi announced his willingness to resign from the leadership of the National Umma Party, but only after his party has hold a general congress, of which he did not mention a planned date.

Last year the Umma party leader said that he does not fear that the government will detain him again. El Mahdi left Sudan in August 2014 after having been detained for one month by the National Intelligence and Security Service for denouncing the widespread attacks against civilians in Kordofan and Darfur by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commanded by the NISS.

♦ Khartoum summons US Charge d'affaires over Trump's order

January 29 – 2017 KHARTOUM The Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the US Chargé d'affaires in Khartoum on Sunday concerning President Donald Trump’s order to bar the entry of Sudanese nationals into the USA.

FA Under-Secretary, Ambassador Abdelghani El Naeem, conveyed to US Chargé d'Affaires Steven Koutsis his government’s resentment regarding the decision, and told him that Khartoum considers the decision “a negative message in light of the positive developments in the course of relations between the two countries”.

On Friday, the new US president issued Executive Order 3769 with which he closed the nation’s borders to refugees from around the world, temporarily suspending immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries, among them Sudan, linked to concerns about terrorism.

The Sudanese official said in a press statement that Sudan expects the US government to soon lift Sudan from the list of states sponsoring terrorism, and review the decision banning Sudanese citizens from entering the USA. 

More highlights from Radio Dabanga:

'NISS prisons in Sudan overcrowded': released detainee

January 31 – 2017 KHARTOUM A Sudanese activist who was recently released from detention said that the prisons of the security apparatus are overcrowded with detainees, who are ill-treated or tortured…

Fewer ‘diarrhoea’ cases in El Gedaref, more in Sudan capital

January 30 – 2017 EL GEDAREF / KHARTOUM The “acute watery diarrhoea” epidemic in eastern Sudan’s El Gedaref has begun to recede. The number of cases in Khartoum North is growing. “Markets and schools in the…

‘333 people suffering from watery diarrhoea’: Sudanese Health Ministry

January 29 – 2017 KHARTOUM / PORT SUDAN The acute watery diarrhoea. suspected to be caused by cholera, that appeared in Sudan about four months ago continues to claim lives in eastern Sudan’s Red Sea…

OCHA: Clean water for 89,000 people in East Darfur

January 29 – 2017 KHARTOUM CARE international-Switzerland (CIS) is supporting access to clean water for about 89,000 refugees, displaced people, and their host communities in three localities in East Darfur. CIS is…

Five Darfuri students arrested from Omdurman dorm

January 27 – 2017 OMDURMAN The National Intelligence and Security Service raided a student dormitory in Um Badda district in Omdurman, and detained five students from Darfur on Friday. They are held at an unknown…

Three killed in tribal fight, Central Darfur

January 27 – 2017 UM DUKHUN / EAST JEBEL MARRA Three people were killed in a tribal clash in Central Darfur on Wednesday evening. A man was killed in Mashrou Abu Zeid. A source in the area told Radio Dabanga…

‘100 rape complaints in 2016, two soldiers to hang’: Darfur prosecutor

January 26 – 2017 EL FASHER The Public Prosecutor for Darfur says that a total of 100 complaints were filed of rape of women and children in the region last year, of which 15 have gone to trial. Counsellor Mohamed…

Detained Sudanese human rights defender on hunger strike in Kober prison

January 25 – 2017 KHARTOUM Sudanese human rights defender and activist, Dr Mudawi Ibrahim, who has been detained without trial in Khartoum’s Kober Prison from early December, has been on a hunger strike…

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