♦ This week’s news in brief ♦

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

♦ Cholera spreading fast in South Darfur; "210 cases" in Jebel Marra

August 29 – 2017 EAST JEBEL MARRA / ZALINGEI / SINGA The cholera infection rates are rapidly increasing in East Jebel Marra in South Darfur. Last week, more than 200 new patients were recorded in the locality. Dozens of them died.

In a press statement on Saturday, the South Darfur Minister of Health, Yagoub El Domouki, described the situation in East Jebel Marra locality as “extremely critical”. He confirmed the infection of 94 people. He reported that an emergency health centre has been established in the area in Lebei, with sufficient medical staff to provide urgent health services. A volunteer told Radio Dabanga yesterday that doctors from Khartoum arrived to treat the 210 recorded cases in total. He added that the water wells in the area have been chlorinated but that the challenge lies in the rainy season as people will drink water from valleys. “This requires more efforts from the World Health Organization and Unicef [UN Children’s Fund] to control the disease.”

In Zalingei, Central Darfur, at least five people died of cholera between Saturday and Monday while 32 others were infected – most of them displaced people from camps in the area, the coordinator of camps in the state told Radio Dabanga. In South Darfur’s Kalma camp, eight people died and more than 200 new cases were reported over the weekend. Earlier this month, the Darfur Displaced and Refugees Association strongly condemned the Sudanese government for not acknowledging the cholera epidemic.

Following the establishment of the isolation ward in Lebei, Dr Jamal Abdelmawla appealed to residents via Radio Dabanga on Thursday: “Residents of villages must immediately go to Lebei centre in the event of any symptoms of the disease, for examination and treatment.”

♦ USAID offers support while sanctions discussed

August 29 – 2017 KHARTOUM Mark Green, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) stressed the US will continue offering humanitarian support for the people in Darfur until the post-war phase. Green met with the governor of North Darfur, Abdelwahid Yousif in El Fasher on Monday. The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) added in a press statement released today that the visit of Mark Green “demonstrates that the humanitarian situation in Sudan is a priority of USAID.”

Meanwhile, Sudan’s foreign minister Ibrahim Ghandour announced the arrival of three delegations of institutions based in the United States to Khartoum, for talks with the government and discussing the tracks that Sudan has to improve in prior to the permanent lifting of economic sanctions Washington has imposed on the country.

In an audio recording of Green’s speech in El Fasher yesterday, the chief administrator of USAID said: “We will be watching closely for sustained progress in all of the five tracks. In particular we are hoping to see progress in humanitarian access right here in North Darfur.”

The armed opposition movement SPLM-N expressed the hope that Khartoum will lift humanitarian aid restrictions before Washington lifts the economic sanctions against Sudan. In a press release yesterday, the policy group Enough Project said that “smart, modernised sanctions that spare the Sudanese public and target those most responsible for grand corruption, atrocities and obstructing peace” should be the aim of the next phase of talks between Khartoum and Washington. The State Sponsor of Terrorism designation of Sudan should be removed once major reforms are made, according to Enough.

August 27 – 2017 NIERTETI A university student was shot at Nierteti’s Northern Camp in Central Darfur on Thursday.Speaking to Radio Dabanga, a camp elder reported that militiamen began firing into…
 

Man killed, others beaten in farming-grazing disputes

August 25 – 2017 ABBASIYA / MERSHING Incidents involving livestock grazing on farms resulted in the killing of a farmer in Abbasiya, South Kordofan, and the beating of a number of people in Mershing…
 

'Darfur disarmament campaign is political fraud': analyst

August 24 – 2017 LONDON / DARFUR The main objective of the campaign to collect weapons announced by the government, under the supervision of Vice President Hasabo Abdelrahman, is to settle…
 

RSF: ‘Increase in free speech violations by Sudan’s NISS’

August 24 – 2017 PARIS International media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF*) has voiced concern about an increase in free speech violations by Sudan’s National Intelligence and…
 

Flood havoc across Sudan

August 23 – 2017 SUDAN Heavy downpours followed by flash floods have wreaked havoc across Sudan. Camps for the displaced have been hit exceptionally hard. The Ministry of Irrigation and Water…