♦ This week’s news in brief ♦

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

♦  Cuts to Darfur peacekeeping mission 'flagrant mistake'

June 19 – 2017 DARFUR The news of the planned downsizing of the UN-AU Mission in Darfur (Unamid) was received among displaced people in Darfur as “a major disappointment and a flagrant mistake”

On June 14, the African Union (AU) and the United Nations announced proposed 44 per cent and 30 per cent reductions in their troop and police presence in Darfur as a step towards an eventual exit from the conflict region. “A reduction of the number of Unamid peacekeepers will make the Darfuris more vulnerable to abuses of all kinds by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and other militias operating in the region,” the Darfur Displaced and Refugees Association commented

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that the Security Council should leave flexibility for Unamid to respond to evolving threats, and strengthen the mission’s human rights monitoring and reporting capacities. Also according to the US Charge d'affaires in Sudan, Steven Koutsis, the security situation in Darfur forms an obstacle for people who want to return home. North Darfur Deputy Governor Mohamed Breima assured Koutsis during his visit to El Fasher that the state is almost free of rebels

Meanwhile, the rebel Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Minawi said in a letter to the Security Council that “Unamid is considered the conclusive guarantee for the protection of civilians in Darfur, particularly that the government of Sudan renews its attacks in the region.”

In late May and early June, Sudanese forces attacked, robbed and torched villages in North and East Darfur, after clashes with rebel fighters. Thousands of villagers were reportedly displaced. Unamid’s report for the first quarter of 2017 found that Sudanese government restrictions seriously hamper the peacekeepers from protecting civilians.

Continue reading

♦ Sudan Health Minister confirms chance of epidemic

June 20 – 2017 KHARTOUM / EL GEDAREF / EL GEZIRA ABA On Monday, Health Minister Bahar Idris Abugarda acknowledged that the outbreak of 'acute watery diarrhoea' in Sudan can grow into an epidemic. The Sudanese Minister of Environment, Hassan Hilal, has publicly held the Health Ministry responsible for the outbreak, which the authorities refuse to call cholera.

Abugarda said in an emergency meeting with state health ministers that of Sudan's ten affected states, White Nile has recorded most cases, followed by the northern Khartoum. In El Salam locality in White Nile more than 100 new cholera cases were reported on Thursday. A medical source told Radio Dabanga that the rate of new infections in the main towns of the state ranges between five and ten cases a day.

A report issued by the Sudanese Epidemiology Corporation revealed 65 new cholera patients at hospitals in Khartoum and sister-city Omdurman on Thursday. El Obeid Hospital in North Kordofan received one new case last week, and 33 patients are being treated in isolation centres. And the former Minister of Health of El Gedaref, Mustafa El Sayed, told Radio Dabanga that cholera has become one of the endemic diseases in El Gedaref.

Figures remain approximate as the Sudanese government has still not officially acknowledged the epidemic. On Monday the UK-Ireland section of the Sudanese Doctors’ Union called on Khartoum to officially declare the outbreak of cholera and activate the disaster protocols.

More news from Radio Dabanga:

More than 120 boat refugees feared drowned off Libya

June 20 – 2017 GENEVA More than 120 refugees, mostly from Sudan and Nigeria, are feared to have drowned in the Mediterranean after a boat sank off the Libyan coast on Friday, UNHCR reported on…

'Unamid helps Darfuris receive services': US envoy in Darfur

June 20 – 2017 GOLO / EL FASHER The United States Chargé d’Affaires in Sudan is in the capital of North Darfur to assess and discuss the security situation in the state. “The presence of Unamid in Golo will help…

Sudan’s Akhir Lahza gagged for second day in a row

June 19 – 2017 KHARTOUM On Sunday morning, agents of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) confiscated the entire print-run of Akhir Lahza newspaper for the second day in a row.“No reasons were…

Sudan security bans charity project in Kassala

June 18 – 2017 KASSALA The Emergency Street Initiative has been ordered to hand over the intensive care unit it is constructing in the Kassala Teaching Hospital to the hospital’s management.On Thursday…

ICC to rule over South Africa's failure to arrest Sudanese president

June 18 – 2017 THE HAGUE The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague is expected to rule over South Africa’s failure to arrest President Omar Al Bashir within three weeks. In June 2015, the…

Amnesty calls on Sudan to ‘end the miscarriage of justice against Dr Mudawi‘

June 15 – 2017 KHARTOUM Reacting to the start of the trial against Sudanese human right champion Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam and his colleague Hafiz Idris Eldoma in Khartoum today, Amnesty International has called…

Two die in attack on Central Darfur Minister’s car

June 15 – 2017 ZALINGEI Two people died and one was wounded in an attack on the car of Central Darfur Health Minister Mousa Ahmed Khater yesterday…

Darfur displaced: ‘450 villages evacuated in Jebel Marra, Ein Siro’

June 14 – 2017 JEBEL MARRA / EIN SIRO The Darfur Displaced and Refugees Association says that the conflict between the government and the armed movements has displaced 450,000 people and evacuated…

Woman dies, driver injured in Central Darfur rickshaw attack

June 14 – 2017 ZALINGEI / TAWILA A woman was killed and a driver injured when gunmen opened fire on a motor rickshaw in the Central Darfur capital of Zalingei on Sunday evening…