UN presence in Sudan ‘in a precarious situation’ -IOM

"The fierce fighting between the Sudanese army and rebel RSF forces risks reaching the UN bases in the east of the country, warns the head of IOM, the UN migration agency in the country, sharing his frustration at being unable to reach the millions of civilians in desperate need of humanitarian assistance". Read more.

From UN News
Dated Wednesday, 17 January 2024 - excerpts:

UN presence in Sudan ‘in a precarious situation’, says IOM country chief

IOM 2023 IOM teams are assessing the needs of Sudanese refugees on the Chad–Sudan border

Since the fighting began in April of last year, about half a million people have fled into neighbouring South Sudan, one of the poorest countries in the world, and thousands more are expected to follow the exodus. The UN has shared reports of horrific abuse and widespread rights violations. Loaded trucks have been unable to bring aid supplies because of fierce fighting. Drivers have been beaten and extorted for money, and aid workers have been detained and killed.

Peter Kioy, the Sudan Chief of Mission for IOM, spoke to Conor Lennon from UN News from his temporary base in the eastern city of Port Sudan about the dangerous situation facing the Sudanese people and the humanitarian workers trying to support them.

© WFP/Eulalia Berlanga South Sudanese returnees arrive at the Joda border point in Upper Nile State.

Peter Kioy: The humanitarian community has no capacity to oversee or access the areas where people are fleeing to or fleeing from, which makes it really difficult for us to ensure the international protection rights that they are entitled to. The lack of humanitarian aid makes them more vulnerable. Access remains one of the key issues for the humanitarian community in Sudan; we need more secure access for humanitarian actors. Both sides agreed to allow humanitarian access during peace talks, but they are still not delivering on that.

UN News: Do you still have people on the ground?

Peter Kioy: In some areas, we don't have people because it’s too dangerous, and the humanitarian space is shrinking. Recently, the conflict reached Al Jazirah state and White Nile state, which meant that humanitarian actors had to move out. Truck drivers do not feel secure going into some of those localities to deliver aid.

IOM Thousands of people have arrived at Metema, the border town between Sudan and Ethiopia, since fighting in Sudan erupted on 15 April 2023.

UN News: How have IOM staff been affected?

Peter Kioy: A staff member was killed at the onset of the crisis, and we had to regroup around our eastern offices in Kassala, Al Qadarif and Port Sudan.

However, we don’t know for how long. The RSF have said that they’re making their way east towards Port Sudan as well. We don’t know how quickly they will advance, so we remain in a precarious situation, where we don’t know what will happen in the next two months or even the next two weeks.

For now, the situation in Port Sudan remains relatively stable and calm, but it is a probably a false calm because we’re not sure of what is happening in and around the city.

So, we remain vigilant in case we find ourselves in a similar situation to Khartoum.

 

UN News: Can you describe the evacuation from Khartoum in April 2023

Peter Kioy: I think it’s a situation you would not want to find yourself in again. 

It was chaotic. Bullets flying all around, people unable to move and seeking shelter under the furniture in their houses, hiding in corners and hoping that no stray bullets come through the windows.

No one expected that Khartoum would bear the brunt of the fighting, and so the necessary security measures were not in place. This made it very scary, especially for those who had family.

It was a nightmare that no one would want to live through or wish on others.

I remember that we were trying to coordinate our staff to get them to the gathering sites for the evacuation. It was difficult even in the relatively calm areas because of the number of rebel and government checkpoints. We didn’t know how the soldiers would react.

UN News: What is morale like amongst the UN teams in Port Sudan?

We have stayed behind to deliver aid, and we have the capacity, but we do not have access to the people who are in need of our support, and that has become frustrating.

There are pockets of hope. We managed, for example, to bring in cross-border support from Chad into Darfur and deliver some vital humanitarian aid. But, it still remains a challenge, and we hope that with the ongoing negotiations greater access can be granted to the humanitarian community at large.

View original: https://news.un.org/en/interview/2024/01/1145602

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Sudan: Kidnappings, looting of newsrooms. Protection of journalists must be a priority.

THIS helps explain why so little hard news is coming out of Sudan: these two Dec 27 posts at X by Isma'il Kushkush @ikushkush@ of Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontières) aka RWB or (unfortunately) RSF. 

One of the posts says: "Journalists in Sudan report that, in the past eight months, 26 print newspapers have stopped publishing and ten national radio stations have stopped broadcasting. Seven local radio stations have also closed and only two are still broadcasting, albeit but randomly".

The other says: "Kidnappings, looting of newsrooms, the right to information is flouted & media professionals are trapped in the civil war that broke out 8 months ago. RSF reminds the parties to the conflict that the protection of journalists must be a priority".  Below is RWB's Dec 26 report.

"Journalists in Sudan report that, in the past eight months, 26 pr.int newspapers have stopped publishing and ten national radio stations have stopped broadcasting. Seven local radio stations have also closed and only two are still broadcasting, albeit but randomly" https://t.co/E9gCe4o1BU

— Isma'il Kushkush (@ikushkush) December 27, 2023

#Sudan🇸🇩: Kidnappings, looting of newsrooms, the right to information is flouted & media professionals are trapped in the civil war that broke out 8 months ago. RSF reminds the parties to the conflict that the protection of journalists must be a priority. https://t.co/JPIAlJk5EG

— RSF in English (@RSF_en) December 27, 2023

Note, Reporters Without Borders (RWB; French: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organisation focused on safeguarding the right to freedom of information. -Wikipedia

__________________________

Report from and by Reporters Without Borders (RWB) at rsf.org

Dated Tuesday, 26 December 2023 - here is a copy in full:

Journalists still trapped in Sudan’s civil war

As Sudan’s journalists continue to be trapped in an eight-month-old civil war, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reminds the two parties to the conflict, the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, that they could be held criminally responsible if journalists are killed or injured, and that protecting media personnel must be a priority.

Recent media victims include Amar Dhaw, a reporter for the Sudan 24 TV channel and the Saqia Press website, who was attacked and beaten by a policeman in the eastern province of Al Qadarif, at the start of December, just for filming a police car for the report he was working on, according to information gathered by RSF.

During the same period, the paramilitaries kidnapped two journalists. Sudan News Agency reporter Mohamed Abderrahim was abducted outside his home in the capital, Khartoum, on 3 December, according to the information obtained by RSF, while Bahaeddine Abou Kassem, a journalist with the daily newspaper Akhbar Al Yawm, was also kidnapped in early December, his sister reported to his colleagues, as the Sudanese Journalists’ Union said. There has been no news of either since then.

Media outlets and journalists have been subjected to serious and repeated attacks since fighting first broke out on 15 April between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

“The parties to this war must be reminded that they could be held criminally responsible in the event of attacks on the physical integrity of journalists, who are protected by international law in conflict situations. Journalists must under no circumstances be targeted, or arrested or detained for doing their job. The perpetrators will be held accountable for their misdeeds.

Khaled Drareni

RSF’s North Africa representative

The persecution of media and journalists is surging as a result of the rivalry between regular army Gen. – and de facto leader – Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who has his headquarters in Port Sudan and controls the territories east of the Nile, and Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, also known as “Hemetti,” the leader of the paramilitaries, who is based in Khartoum and controls several major cities in Darfur and the west of the country.

“Even crossing the street and just going out then returning to the newspaper has become an obstacle course,” Amr Chabane, the editor of the Khartoum-based newspaper Al Sudani told RSF. “We’re located in a dangerous area that has seen many clashes and shoot-outs.” 

Looted media 

The headquarters of Sudan’s General Authority for Radio and Television, which is located in the Khartoum suburb of Omdurman, was turned into a detention centre a few weeks ago, the Sudanese Journalists’ Union says, condemning “this irresponsible behaviour which exposes the country’s history heritage to destruction and disappearance.”

The union also reports that equipment is being looted from public radio and TV stations and is being sold on the city’s sidewalks. The Blue Nile TV channel has suffered the same fate. All of its equipment has been stolen and placed on sale in Omdurman’s Libya market.

Three other prominent media outlets, the Sudan 24 and Al Balad TV channels and the BBC’s Khartoum bureau, have also been vandalised and looted, according to the Sudanese Journalists’ Union, which called on all regional and international press freedom organisations to denounce what is happening, and work to stop it.

Journalists in Sudan report that, in the past eight months, 26 print newspapers have stopped publishing and ten national radio stations have stopped broadcasting. Seven local radio stations have also closed and only two are still broadcasting, albeit but randomly.

View original: https://rsf.org/en/journalists-still-trapped-sudan-s-civil-war

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