Showing posts with label Hamdok. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hamdok. Show all posts

Saturday, March 09, 2024

Hamdok in Cairo for meetings to end Sudan War

THIS man has the decency and patience of a saint. Anyone who speaks badly of him is a trouble maker who doesn't know how to give due respect. Sudan and South Sudan need more dedicated, honest, hardworking people like him.

Report from Asharq Al-Awsat aawsat.com website
Dated Saturday, 9 March 2024 - here is a copy in full:

Hamdok in Cairo to Push Forward Efforts to End Sudan War

Former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. (Reuters file photo)


A delegation from the Sudanese Coordination of Civil Democratic Forces (Taqaddum), led by former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, kicked off on Friday a visit to Cairo to hold talks with senior Egyptian officials, officials from the Arab League and Sudanese figures residing in Egypt.


The visit is aimed at ending the war in Sudan, said a statement from the group.


Experts said Hamdok’s visit was significant and being held at a “suitable” time, predicting it could have a positive impact.


This is the former PM’s first visit to Egypt since the eruption of the war in mid-April 2023.


The Taqaddum statement added that the visit reflects the historic relations that bind the Sudanese and Egyptian people. It is also part of efforts carried out by the group with friendly countries to help end the war in Sudan.


Officials will discuss the “catastrophic humanitarian conditions endured by our people” and work on effectively responding to it, continued the statement.


“This demands determination from the main parties and regional and international coordination” to address the situation, it stressed.


The statement noted that Egypt is hosting hundreds of thousands of Sudanese people who fled the war, hoping that the visit would be a step forward in intensifying and coordinating efforts to put an end to the conflict.


The Sudanese Coordination of Civil Democratic Forces is a coalition of civil society, youth, vocational and feminist groups working towards bolstering democracy and human rights in Sudan.


The coalition has been active in recent months to help end the war between the army and Rapid Support Forces (RSF). It has held several meetings in neighboring countries to tackle the conflict.


Hamdok had earlier this year called for holding contacts with the army and RSF leaderships. In January, he met with RSF leader Mohammed Hamdan Daglo in Ethiopia.


Head of the head of the Sudanese Alliance Party and leading member of the central council of the Forces of Freedom and Change Kamal Ismail said several Sudanese civilian forces were counting on Cairo to play an effective role in helping end the war through the launch of a political process.


He told Asharq Al-Awsat that the visit aims at intensifying efforts to end the war, tackling the humanitarian disaster in Sudan and coming up with political solutions.


He noted that the Sudanese Alliance Party had held intense dialogue with Sudanese political powers in recent months, revealing that they have succeeded in building the political ground and foundation for ending the war.


The details related to political issues can be discussed during the post-war phase through the support of Sudan’s neighbors, led by Egypt, that are keen on Sudan restoring its stability, he remarked.


Egypt had in July 2023 hosted a summit for Sudan’s neighbors, including Libya, Chad, Central Africa, South Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia.


The gatherers agreed on a communication mechanism led by their foreign ministers to discuss the necessary executive measures to tackle the consequences of the crisis on the future and stability of Sudan.


Cairo has also hosted in recent months meetings of a number of Sudanese political forces, including the central council of the Forces of Freedom and Change, that discussed coming up with a political framework to end the war. They also covered the democratic transition in the country.


Source: 

https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/4901146-hamdok-cairo-push-forward-efforts-end-sudan-war


ENDS

Friday, March 08, 2024

AU High-Level Panel on Sudan met dissolved NCP

"In a rare move, the African Union High-Level Panel on Sudan met with representatives of the dissolved National Congress Party (NCP) of the former Islamist regime in Cairo on Wednesday.


Over the past two days, the panel also held meetings in Port Sudan with figures including Sudanese Army Commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the Popular Congress Party (Shura Council’s wing), and others. 


Meanwhile, the Civil Democratic Forces Coordination Mechanism (“Tagadum”) is expected to meet with the panel in Addis Ababa on Thursday." Read more.


From Sudan Tribune

Dated Wednesday, 6 March 2024 - here is a copy in full:


African Union mechanism meets dissolved Sudanese Islamist party in Cairo

AU HLP- Sudan poses with the NCP delegation on March 6, 2024


March 6, 2024 (CAIRO) – In a rare move, the African Union High-Level Panel on Sudan met with representatives of the dissolved National Congress Party (NCP) of the former Islamist regime in Cairo on Wednesday.


This meeting was part of the panel’s ongoing efforts to hold talks with various Sudanese political groups aimed at ending the ongoing conflict.


Sources confirmed to Sudan Tribune that the meeting, held at the Sheraton Hotel, followed similar talks with representatives of the Forces of Freedom and Change – Democratic Bloc.


Over the past two days, the panel also held meetings in Port Sudan with figures including Sudanese Army Commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the Popular Congress Party (Shura Council’s wing), and others. 


Meanwhile, the Civil Democratic Forces Coordination Mechanism (“Tagadum”) is expected to meet with the panel in Addis Ababa on Thursday.


The meeting with the NCP delegation, which included party leading members Amira Al-Fadil and Osama Faisal, focused on the Sudanese crisis and potential solutions to the conflict between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, which began in April 2023.


However, sources stated that NCP representatives claimed they lacked the mandate to discuss the proposed agenda and advised the panel to meet with the party’s leadership within Sudan.


In August 2023, Yasir Arman, a spokesperson for the Forces for Freedom and Change, criticized potential involvement of the NCP in peace talks, viewing it as rewarding them for past actions.


Tagadum and other pro-democracy forces in Sudan agreed to exclude the National Congress Party (NCP) from the transitional government, as provided in the 2019 Constitutional Declaration. They argue that the NCP, an Islamist group banned after the 2019 revolution, would impede the establishment of a secular state.


The African Union (AU), however, advocates for the NCP’s inclusion, emphasizing the importance of inclusivity in the political process. The AU sees the NCP’s support for the military in its conflict with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as a potential entry point for their involvement.


Led by former Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, the Tagadum delegation is expected to reiterate its firm opposition to the NCP’s participation in the transitional period.


View original: https://sudantribune.com/article282990/

END 

Sunday, March 03, 2024

Sudan: SAF chief urges to restore membership in AU

RESTORING Sudan's membership in the African Union is good news. Africa is the world's second largest continent and contains over 50 countries. 

Report from Xinhua China View
By Editor: Huaxia
Dated Monday, 04 March 2024, 02:56:15 - here is a copy in full:

Sudan's army chief urges for restoring membership in AU


KHARTOUM, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, chairman of Sudan's Transitional Sovereign Council, stressed on Sunday Sudan's confidence in the African Union (AU), calling for the restoration of Sudan's full membership in the regional organization.


Al-Burhan made the remarks when he received the delegation of the AU High-Level Panel on the Resolution of the Conflict in Sudan, led by Mohamed Ibn Chambas, in Port Sudan, the capital city of the Red Sea state, the sovereign council said in a statement.


"Al-Burhan expressed Sudan's confidence in the African Union and the solutions it could offer, provided that Sudan deals with the organization as a full member," the statement said.


Al-Burhan further stressed that the basis of the solution lies in the withdrawal of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) from the cities and villages they occupied.


For his part, Ibn Chambas stressed the need to stop the conflict and achieve stability for Sudan and its people, according to the statement.


He pointed to the AU high-level panel's keenness and endeavor to find solutions to the crisis, noting that the panel listened to all Sudanese political forces.


On Jan. 17, the AU announced the formation of a High-Level Panel on the Resolution of the Conflict in Sudan. The panel consists of three African figures, including Ibn Chambas as chairman, besides Speciosa Wandira-Kazibwe, former vice president of the Republic of Uganda, and Francisco Madeira, former special representative of the chairperson of the Commission to Somalia, as members.


The AU had frozen Sudan's membership after Al-Burhan declared a state of emergency on Oct. 25, 2021, and dissolved the Sovereign Council and the transitional government which was headed by the then Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.


Sudan has been witnessing deadly clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF since April 15, 2023. More than 13,000 people have been killed since the fighting broke out, according to recent estimates released by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 


Source: http://www.chinaview.cn/africa/20240304/db8052893099462796fae829cb34545b/c.html


END

Sunday, February 11, 2024

BBC HARDtalk: Abdalla Hamdok Former PM of Sudan

THANKS to a Sudanese reader in England for sending in a link to this interview aired on 1 Feb 2024. Let's hope Dr Hamdok stays strong and well. He is a thoroughly decent man with the calmness and patience of a saint. Sudan needs more great humanitarians and peacemakers like him.


BBC TV interview

HARDtalk

Abdalla Hamdok - Former Prime Minister of Sudan


Zeinab Badawi speaks to the former prime minister of Sudan Abdalla Hamdok. He is at the heart of the negotiations to bring peace to the country after ten months of conflict in which thousands have died and millions have been displaced. Can his efforts succeed?


Click here to see the full interview, free of charge:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001vypz/hardtalk-abdalla-hamdok-former-prime-minister-of-sudan

Duration 25 mins

First shown 1 Feb 2024

Available for 11 months

___________________________


POSTSCRIPT from Sudan Watch Editor


The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster with a royal charter. Its headquarters are at Broadcasting House in London, England, United Kingdom.


Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current state with its current name on 1 January 1927. 


The oldest and largest local and global broadcaster by stature and by number of employees, the BBC employs over 21,000 staff in total, of whom approximately 17,900 are in public-sector broadcasting.


The BBC is funded by the British people. Every household, company and organisation in the UK pays a compulsory Licence Fee. Currently, a household Licence Fee averages £13.25 GBP per month. All households with people over 75 are entitled to a free TV Licence paid by the BBC.

Photo: The new extension to the BBC's Broadcasting House, completed in 2012. Source: Wikipedia


The BBC proudly belongs to the nation and ensures that the BBC's radio, television and online services are made freely available, without commercial advertising, to anyone, anywhere in the world including free access to its unrivalled databases of news, reports, interviews, discussions, education, podcasts, dramas, films, documentaries, music, entertainment and catch-up. 


The BBC World Service is an international news service available on radio, television and online. It provides impartial news reports and analysis in English and 40 other languages including ArabicPersian and Pidgin. Click here to read about BBC World Service radio and how to receive it. 


Click here to get the BBC's news in your language. Note that emergency radio services are offered and provided by the BBC to countries where there is war and/or little radio, television, telecoms, internet infrastructure.

Photo: Television pioneer John Logie Baird (seen here in 1917) televised the BBC's first drama, The Man with the Flower in His Mouth, on 14 July 1930, and the first live outside broadcast, The Derby, on 2 June 1931. 

John Logie Baird FRSE (13 August 1888 – 14 June 1946) was a Scottish inventor, electrical engineer, and innovator who demonstrated the world's first live working television system on 26 January 1926. He went on to invent the first publicly demonstrated colour television system and the first viable purely electronic colour television picture tube. Source: Wikipedia

Photo: BBC Scotland building, BBC Pacific Quay in Glasgow, Scotland which was opened in 2007. Source: Wikipedia

Photo: A statue of George Orwell by the British sculptor Martin Jenning was unveiled on 7 November 2017 outside Broadcasting House, the headquarters of the BBC, in  London. Source: Wikipedia

Photo: The main entrance to Broadcasting House in 2019. Source: Wikipedia

Read more at Wikipedia:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC

UPDATE Mon 12 Feb 2024: added last lines to intro, changed Saint to saint.

END

Saturday, January 20, 2024

Sudan: Christian man killed by RSF militia. Baraka Parish church at Hajj Yusuf near Khartoum set on fire

CHRISTIANS in Sudan fear they are being increasingly targeted. “There are radical Muslims among RSF,” the pastor said in an online post. “I met some of them in Khartoum and Medani who badly harassed me when they learned that I was a pastor.” In Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, Sudan was ranked No. 8, up from No. 10 the previous year. The Christian population of Sudan is estimated at 2 million, or 4.5% of the total population of more than 43 million. Read more.

From Morning Star News
By Morning Star News
Dated Friday, 19 January 2024 - here is a copy in full:

Christian man killed by militants in Sudan; church set on fire

Baraka Parish church at Hajj Yusuf, on the outskirts of Khartoum, Sudan, February 10, 2013. | Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah

JUBA, South Sudan — A Sudanese Christian 85 miles southeast of Khartoum has succumbed to his injuries after militants from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) assaulted him, sources said.


Personnel from the RSF, which has been fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) since April 15, severely assaulted Karbino Bla in Wad Medani, capital of Al Jazirah state on Jan. 1, following the militants’ takeover of the city on Dec. 18. The motives for the assault were unclear.


Bla, a member of the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC), died on Jan. 5 as a result of the injuries, area sources said. He is survived by his wife and an infant daughter.


“This a great lost to the Evangelical church in Medani,” a relative said.


Rights organizations and area residents report the RSF has killed civilians, raped women and girls and looted homes and shops since taking control of the state in December.


Last Friday, Muslim extremists from the RSF set a church building on fire in Wad Medani, said area sources, including a SPEC pastor. The blaze destroyed Bibles, hymnbooks, important documents and chairs in the building, he said.


Christians in Sudan fear they are being increasingly targeted, the pastor said.


“There are radical Muslims among RSF,” the pastor said in an online post. “I met some of them in Khartoum and Medani who badly harassed me when they learned that I was a pastor.”


In Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, Sudan was ranked No. 8, up from No. 10 the previous year.


Sudan had dropped out of the top 10 for the first time in six years when it first ranked No. 13 in the 2021 World Watch List.


Fighting between the RSF and the SAF, which had shared military rule in Sudan following an October 2021 coup, has terrorized civilians in Khartoum and elsewhere, leaving more than 12,000 people dead and displacing an estimated 5.8 million others.


Christian sites have been targeted since the conflict began.


The SAF’s Gen. Abdelfattah al-Burhan and his then-vice president, RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, were in power when civilian parties in March agreed on a framework to re-establish a democratic transition in April, but disagreements over military structure torpedoed final approval.


Burhan sought to place the RSF — a paramilitary outfit with roots in the Janjaweed militias that had helped former strongman Omar al-Bashir put down rebels — under the regular army’s control within two years, while Dagolo would accept integration within nothing fewer than 10 years. The conflict burst into military fighting on April 15.


Both military leaders have Islamist backgrounds while trying to portray themselves to the international community as pro-democracy advocates of religious freedom.


Following two years of advances in religious freedom in Sudan after the end of the Islamist dictatorship under Bashir in 2019, the specter of state-sponsored persecution returned with the military coup of Oct. 25, 2021.


After Bashir was ousted from 30 years of power in April 2019, the transitional civilian-military government managed to undo some Sharia (Islamic law) provisions. It outlawed the labeling of any religious group “infidels” and thus effectively rescinded apostasy laws that made leaving Islam punishable by death.


With the Oct. 25, 2021 coup, Christians in Sudan feared the return of the most repressive and harsh aspects of Islamic law. Abdalla Hamdok, who had led a transitional government as prime minister starting in September 2019, was detained under house arrest for nearly a month before he was released and reinstated in a tenuous power-sharing agreement in November 2021.


Hamdock had been faced with rooting out longstanding corruption and an Islamist “deep state” from Bashir’s regime — the same deep state that is suspected of rooting out the transitional government in the Oct. 25, 2021 coup.


Persecution of Christians by non-state actors continued before and after the coup.


The U.S. State Department in 2019 removed Sudan from the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) that engage in or tolerate “systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom” and upgraded it to a watch list. Sudan had previously been designated as a CPC from 1999 to 2018.


In December 2020, the State Department removed Sudan from its Special Watch List.


The Christian population of Sudan is estimated at 2 million, or 4.5% of the total population of more than 43 million.


Morning Star News is the only independent news service focusing exclusively on the persecution of Christians. The nonprofit's mission is to provide complete, reliable, even-handed news in order to empower those in the free world to help persecuted Christians, and to encourage persecuted Christians by informing them that they are not alone in their suffering.


View original: https://www.christianpost.com/news/christian-man-killed-by-militants-in-sudan-church-set-on-fire.html


Related

Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC) building in ruins after shelling on Wednesday (Nov. 1, 2023) in Omdurman, Sudan. 

(Morning Star News)


Morning Star News - November 6, 2023

Christian Buildings Targeted in Military Conflict in Sudan

Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC) structure in Omdurman left in ruins.

If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit https://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved.  

Full story: https://morningstarnews.org/2023/11/christian-buildings-targeted-in-military-conflict-in-sudan/

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Sudan Watch - January 14, 2024

Sudan: Unidentified arsonists raze the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Wad Madani, Aj Jazirah State

According to this very sad report, unidentified arsonists razed the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Wad Madani, Aj Jazirah State, Sudan. The fire, based on the information gathered, was deliberate and aimed to destroy the Christian community’s religious facilities and obliterate the church’s history, which spans over a century.

Full story: https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2024/01/sudan-unidentified-arsonists-raze.html


ENDS