‘Sudan committed to combating terrorism’: Minister

The Sudanese Minister of International Cooperation has renewed his government’s commitment to prevent and counter violent extremism and terrorism.

Following numerous discussions with national and international partners on an evidence-based study on violent extremism, jointly conducted by Sudan’s National Commission for Counter Terrorism (NCCT), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and civil society members, a way-forward document was signed by the Ministry of International Cooperation and the NCCT at the Ministry of Information in Khartoum on Saturday.

Tthe UNDP in Sudan reported in a press statement on Saturday that the Sudanese Minister of International Cooperation Idris Suliman, State Minster of International Cooperation Dr Sumaya El Kud, NCCT Director-General Dr Jamal Mohamed, UNDP Resident Representative in Sudan Marta Ruedas, and UNDP Country Director Selva Ramachandran attended the signing.

The subject of countering violent extremism will be high priority for Sudan, Dr El Kud said at the signing ceremony. Her ministry will support all partners who are seeking to help this initiative. She emphasised that all international partners should support this initiative for promoting the stability of Sudan and the region.

Stakeholders

The UNDP resident representative in Sudan mentioned that the discussions were held with many national and international partners, and all support will be rendered to the Government of Sudan and its civil society partners to address the issue of violent extremism. She also mentioned that further steps like today’s signing will further ease Sudan to delink from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.

The NCCT consists of a number of partners like Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Interior Affairs, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Justice, the Central Bank of Sudan, the Financial Unit of Sudan, and civil society actors, the NCCT secretary-general said. He further stated that the NCCT is happy to partner with UNDP and international organisations.

According to the UNDP Country Director reaching this result would not have reached “without the various partnerships with stakeholders like the NCCT [and] the Ministry of International Cooperation. He added that the result as well “required a partnership between all stakeholders to understand the root causes of the extremism in the national content”.

He thanked all international stakeholders, in particular Japan and Canada, for their initial support. He said that talks were held with all key embassies to seek their support to help Sudan to take a lead on this subject.