♦ Sudan: This week’s news in brief ♦

A compact digest of the past week’s most-read highlights, from the heart of Sudan. Subscribe to receive this digest weekly in your inbox.

Sudan Foreign Ministry voices ‘astonishment and condemnation’ over Paris conference
 
12/04/2024 18:48 PORT SUDAN. Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed “its utmost astonishment and condemnation” of the humanitarian conference on April 15 in Paris, convened by France, Norway, the United Kingdom, the USA, and the European Union. It laments “that such a conference is convened on a matter concerning Sudan without consultation or coordination with its government and without its participation…”. The ministerial statement said that the government of Sudan was the first to seek to mobilise the necessary international support to confront the humanitarian crisis created by the aggression of the militia against the Sudanese people.
 
Since the war started in April 2023, Hemedti was expelled from the government, leaving the Sudanese government de facto in the hands of the army after a military coup in 2021.

Investigation launched into drone attack on Sudan’s El Gedaref
 
09/04/2024 16:56 EL GEDAREF. Security services in Sudan’s El Gedaref state are probing the drone attack that targeted the military base of the Security and Intelligence Services in Al Fao. No deaths have been reported. However, three people were injured, with one victim losing a leg. El Gedaref state government has launched an investigation into the attack, while security services searched the house of political activist Jaafar Khader in connection with the incident.
 
Basha Tubaiq, advisor to the RSF commander, said in a post on platform X: “The bombing with drones in El Gedaref and Atbara, and the defections among army commanders and Islamists, is only the result of the calls of the oppressed who are being bombed by the army”.

Paris conference ‘returns Sudan’s issues to the forefront’
15/04/2024 23:20 PARIS. Coinciding with the first anniversary of the outbreak of war in Sudan, the Paris Conference on Humanitarian Issues in Sudan, concluded today under French, German and European sponsorship, and a with wide and numerous Sudanese presence, but with the absence of the armed parties to the conflict.
 
Sudan Media Forum: ‘One year of devastation: Sudan in the grip of war’
15/04/2024 09:00 SUDAN. One year ago today, on April 15, 2023, a brutal conflict erupted in the heart of Sudan’s capital. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by General Abdelfattah El Burhan, clashed with the RSF of General Mohamed ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo, plunging Sudan into a deadly crisis.
 
WHO laments ‘huge human cost’ of Sudan conflict
14/04/2024 10:19 GENEVA. The World Health Organisation has warned that the crisis in Sudan has become one of the most severe and largest crises in the world, at a huge human cost, after a year of violent conflict. The UN organisation reported the death of more than 15,000 people since the start of the armed conflict in Sudan a year ago.
 
Sudan’s silent suffering captured in ‘Children’s Drawings’
12/04/2024 20:51 LONDON. In casting a spotlight on the ongoing crises devastating Sudan, Waging Peace launched a poignant new book titled The Children’s Drawings. Featuring dozens of artworks by Sudanese children, the eighty-page volume offers a stark portrayal of the harrowing experiences endured in conflict-ridden regions like Darfur and the Nuba Mountains.
 
Opinion: EU shift on Sudan war ‘late in coming’
10/04/2024 12:00 BRUSSELS. The European Union has stepped up its accusations that Iran, Russia, and the UAE are fuelling the war in Sudan by supporting both the SAF and the paramilitary RSF. Observers believe that the European position towards the war in Sudan represents a shift in international trends following the conflict in Sudan, but “it is late in coming”.
 
Air strikes on Darfur cities intensify
10/04/2024 11:29 NYALA. One person has died, and many homes have reportedly been destroyed after Sudanese Air Force warplanes targeted strategic areas in Nyala, capital of South Darfur, with air strikes last night. This follows intensified air strikes in recent days on Nyala, North Darfur capital El Fasher, and several villages in the Darfur region in recent weeks.
 
Eid Mubarak
09/04/2024 23:59 AMSTERDAM. The Dabanga team wishes our listeners, readers, viewers, and all Muslims in the world, a blessed Eid El Fitr. Our hearts and thoughts are with the people in Sudan, hoping for a speedy end to the violence and bloodshed, and for peace to prevail.
 
Sudan Media Forum launches #StandWithSudan campaign to address famine and human rights abuses
08/04/2024 22:00 AMSTERDAM. Sudan’s independent journalists and media organisations, united under the Sudanese Media Forum, have launched a critical campaign for global solidarity with the Sudanese people as they face the devastating threat of famine and a worsening humanitarian crisis. The campaign is timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the outbreak of the war.
 
EU: ‘External sponsors fuel war in Sudan, suffering is entirely manmade’
08/04/2024 16:35 BRUSSELS. The world’s worst, most complex and cruel crisis is unfolding in Sudan, and “external sponsors, bringing in cash and weapons, fuel the fighting,” said Vice-President of the European Commission Josep Borrell Fontelles, and Janez Lenarčič, European Commissioner for Crisis Management. They call for an immediate ceasefire, access to humanitarian aid, and for the warring parties to join negotiations for peace.
 
Five years after Al Bashir overthrow, ‘flame of Sudan revolution will not be extinguished’
07/04/2024 11:26 SUDAN. April 6, marking five years after the revolutionary sit-in was set up in front of the Central Command of the Sudanese Armed Forces in downtown Khartoum in 2019, did not pass as an ordinary day for the Sudanese. Social media activists called for everyone to interact through their pages, under the slogan “This Country Belongs to Us” on Saturday at 19:00 Sudanese time “to have a digital protest march that circumnavigates the whole world”.
 
Sudan psychotherapists provide mental support amid scarcity of medicines  
05/04/2024 12:13 PORT SUDAN. The war that erupted between the SAF and RSF almost a year ago, has not only caused more than eight million people to flee their homes, but has also a severe psychological impact on many Sudanese. Nearly 80 psychotherapists are treating traumatised people in nine states in the country, despite a “complete lack of health services”.