'No obstacles' to Russian Red Sea base - Sudan

Sudan-Russia deal: Final agreement reached over Red Sea naval base, says Sudan. Moscow has for years sought to establish a base near Port Sudan. The port agreement, which was to last for 25 years, had been for Russia to establish a naval logistics hub, with warships including nuclear-powered vessels, and up to 300 personnel. Read full story.

From BBC News online

By Basillioh Rukanga

BBC News

Dated Thursday, 13 February 2025, 08:22 GMT - excerpts:

'No obstacles' to Russian Red Sea base - Sudan

IMAGE SOURCE, EPA. 

Image caption, Sudan's Foreign Minister Ali Youssef (L) met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow

Sudan has said a final deal has been agreed with Russia to establish a naval base on the war-torn country's Red Sea coast, saying there were "no obstacles" to it. 

An agreement was discussed under former President Omar al-Bashir, but the military government that overthrew him had later said the matter was under review.

Sudan's Foreign Minister Ali Youssef said on Wednesday a deal had been signed and they were in "complete agreement" with Russia over the establishment of the port. He said what remained was only the ratification of the deal.

The US, China and France already have a naval presence in the seas off the Horn of Africa - a key strategic and trading route.

“Sudan and Russia have reached an understanding on the agreement regarding the Russian naval base," Youssif told a press briefing on Wednesday with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

"The matter is very simple… We have agreed on everything," he said.

No further details were provided and Lavrov did not comment on the matter.

The deal was discussed under Bashir's rule in 2019 and initially signed in November 2020, soon after the military takeover, but its fate had been unclear since war broke out in 2023.

Moscow has for years sought to establish a base near Port Sudan.

The port agreement, which was to last for 25 years, had been for Russia to establish a naval logistics hub, with warships including nuclear-powered vessels, and up to 300 personnel.

The Red Sea provides a strategic route that is vital to global commerce as well as a defence and geopolitical hotspot.

Russian interests in Port Sudan are said to have grown amid fears of losing its military assets in Syria. The new government in Syria last month terminated a treaty granting Russia a long-term lease for a port where Russia has had its only foreign naval base.

In recent months, Russian officials have reportedly visited Port Sudan - the de facto capital of Sudan during the war - and has sought to cultivate ties with both warring sides in the civil war.

Russia has also been expanding its influence in other African countries, including signing military co-operation agreements and displacing traditional Western allies.

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Full story: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c30del8dz51o

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United Kingdom is on a "war footing". New UK Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa and Red Sea appointed

On April 24, 2024 the BBC reported that many of the front pages declare that the UK is on a "war footing" after Rishi Sunak's announcement of an extra £75bn for defence over the next six years. 

The Telegraph says there will be a focus on hypersonic missiles, lasers, anti-tank rockets and artillery shells. Writing in the paper, the chief of the defence staff - Admiral Sir Tony Radakin - said the investment was a sign that Britain had lost none of her famous resolve.

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New UK Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa and Red Sea appointed

Alison Blackburne is the UK’s Special Envoy for the Red Sea and Horn of Africa, starting in this role in May 2024. Alison was the British Ambassador to South Sudan from April 2017 to May 2019, and before that British High Commissioner to Uganda from August 2012 to November 2016.

_________________________________

HERE is a full copy of Africa Press Release

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Government of UK
Dated Thursday, 9 May 2024 

New United Kingdom Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa and Red Sea appointed: Alison Blackburne

Alison Blackburne has been appointed UK Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa and Red Sea. She takes up the role with experience in a wide range of diplomatic roles in the UK and overseas, including previously serving as the British High Commissioner to Uganda and British Ambassador to South Sudan. 

The UK Envoy’s role is to lead the UK response to international activity in the Horn of Africa region, engaging with key actors.

Deputy Foreign Secretary Andrew Mitchell said: The UK is committed to building our long-term partnerships in the Horn of Africa, wider East Africa and across the Gulf. Our relationship tackles a range of issues, from humanitarian crises to trade, investment, and regional security.  

It’s been a critical year for the region, from a devastating conflict in Sudan, to attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and building our trade links in the Gulf. 

Alison will bring invaluable knowledge and experience to the role, and I am confident she will grow our diplomatic relationships in the coming years.

UK Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa and Red Sea Alison Blackburne said: The Horn of Africa is a dynamic region, and the UK remains focussed on working with partners to bring peace, stability, and prosperity for its people.

We are committed to tackling the key issues which affect communities across the region.  These include conflict and instability, humanitarian crises, climate change and food insecurity, as well as the challenges and opportunities of regional economic cooperation and trade and investment. 

 It is a privilege to accept this position, and I look forward to working with our international partners at such a crucial time.

View original:  https://www.zawya.com/en/press-release/africa-press-releases/new-united-kingdom-special-envoy-to-the-horn-of-africa-and-red-sea-appointed-alison-blackburne-s3nghnzc

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VIDEO: Sky's Yousra Elbagir visits Omdurman, Sudan

HERE is footage posted to X by Sky News (@SkyNews) February 13, 2024. It shows Sky's reporter @YousraElbagir treading through debris in an empty street with ruins on each side in Omdurman where Sudan's largest street market was destroyed. She reached the city in a battered armoured vehicle. 

Omdurman in Khartoum State is Sudan's most populous city. It is approximately 11 kilometres, a 15 minutes drive, from the country's capital Khartoum. Gunshots can be heard in the background of the video. 

Since fighting broke out last April, Port Sudan is for now the capital of Sudan. Port Sudan is a city and port on the Red Sea in eastern Sudan, and the capital of Red Sea State. Port Sudan is Sudan's main seaport and the source of 90% of the country's international trade. Read more at Wikipedia.

Sky's @YousraElbagir is in Omdurman, Sudan's most populous city.

Fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Defence Forces has destroyed the nation's largest street market - but the area isn't totally secure yet.https://t.co/OXBz6WA89g pic.twitter.com/FsVbCsI8iy

— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 13, 2024

___________________________

Article by Africa correspondent @YousraElbagir 
Tuesday, 13 Feb 2024, 03:30, UK - here is a copy in full excluding photos:

Destruction of Sudan's most iconic street market is a massacre of memory and communal life

Africa correspondent Yousra Elbagir gives her personal reflections on what has happened to Sudan's famous street market through this year's conflict.

Souq Omdurman was the beating heart of our mother city. It was a traders' paradise, a meeting point and a lifeline.

A market where more than money exchanged hands. Agreements, ideas and jokes were yelled across its avenues and as visitors passed through, they were either beckoned into the shops or scoffed at for interrupting the banter.

Every trip was an excursion.

My friends and I went for the silver, antique records and leather. Our mothers went for spices, kitchenware and gold. Their mothers went for that and more, and their mothers before them too.

Our grandmothers and great-grandmothers went for different goods in a different era but at the same market with the same streets at the same iconic spot.

"All our memories are in Souq Omdurman. Our entire childhood was in Souq Omdurman - then we got older and bought our wedding things from there too," my mother tells me on the phone from Cairo.

She lost her home in Khartoum overnight and now, the home of her founding moments.

After standing for more than a century, the market has been desecrated and destroyed.

Looted and pillaged by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the early days of the war and then shelled, punctured with bullets and burnt to black in their ensuing battles with the army.

The cupboards of the gold shops were still open when we arrived. An emptied ring tray flattened on the ammunition-covered ashen ground.

At the corner facing the bullet-hole-ridden bus stop, the front of a wedding shop is littered with broken incense holders in traditional Sudanese scarlet synonymous with brides.

A nearby unexploded mortar round sat slanted on the debris and an upside-down fuschia couch blocked the road with dystopian absurdity.

It was there that I wept - out of disbelief and grief - as gunfire rang out a few hundred metres away.

Sounds, sights and smells I would never attach to this place had assaulted my senses all at once.

The loss is generational. Livelihoods and legacies shattered like the store-front glass.

An agony felt most by the shop owners and residents that once lined the streets, radiating outwards to all that walked them.

The heart of our city has stopped beating. The veins have emptied and the pulse has flatlined.

The destruction of Souq Omdurman is a massacre of memory and communal life. A casualty that even peace will struggle to restore.

View original including photos:

https://news.sky.com/story/destruction-of-sudans-largest-street-market-is-a-massacre-of-memory-and-communal-life-13070430

END

Sri Lanka Army Medical Corps Departs for S. Sudan

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: Any attack on a peacekeeper constitutes a war crime. Sadly, the bodies of two UN peacekeepers, one from Ghana and the other from Pakistan, were flown home from South Sudan last week. I have documented news of hundreds of peacekeepers being murdered in Sudan and South Sudan. They gave their lives to protect a thankless lot. 

Sudanis and aid orgs on social media are demanding the international community to help. It is time they pressure African leaders and African Union for help. To paraphrase the previous prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno Ocampo: the international community is like a unicorn, everyone knows what a unicorn looks like but it doesn't exist.   

Over the last 60-70+ years, millions of people outside Africa have reached out to help those in Africa less fortunate than themselves. I guess there has come a time when many of those who are still alive couldn't be more disappointed in South Sudan after all the hard work, goodwill and money freely given to help them on their feet. Money to pay for aid, protection and organisations such as the United Nations and the ICC comes from the pockets of hardworking taxpayers in developed countries across the world. 

Sudan and South Sudan have had enough time to get their house in order. The world will not forget them but can't afford to subsidise them forever. Time marches on, the world changes. Russia is at war with Ukraine. Israel is at war with Gaza. The US, UK and French navies are stationed in the Red Sea to protect trade routes. Europe has war at its door. The US has bigger fish to fry. The UK is in the crosshairs of Russia. Foreign aid budgets will need to be cut and illegal migrants stamped out. Sudan and South Sudan are rich enough to pay their own way and look after their own. Tough love is in order.

From News First
Written by Staff Writer    
Dated Tuesday, 06 February 2024, 2:16 PM - here is a copy in full:

Army Medical Corps Departs for South Sudan

COLOMBO (News 1st); The 10th contingent of the Sri Lanka Army Medical Corps (SLAMC) departed Sri Lanka early this morning (06 February), to assume duties at the Level-2 SRIMED Hospital in the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

The 10th South Sudan bound contingent, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel D.M.D.J Dissanayake RSP USP and Second in Command, Major N.I Rathnayake, comprises 64 Army personnel, including 14 Army Officers, 01 Naval Officer and 49 Other Ranks.

Representing the Commander of the Army, Major General P.A.C. Fernando USP, Colonel Commandant, SLAMC and Director General Army Health Services, Brigadier G.L.S.W Liyanage USP psc, Director, Directorate of Overseas Operations, Brigadier W.A.U.S Wanasekara RWP USP, Centre Commandant, SLAMC and other Senior Officers bid farewell to the contingent at the Bandaranaike International Airport.

View original: https://www.newsfirst.lk/2024/02/06/army-medical-corps-departs-for-south-sudan/

Related

FROM AFP NEWS 

Sudan Conflict: $4.1 Billion Needed For Humanitarian Aid In 2024

Wednesday, 7 February 2024

https://www.barrons.com/news/sudan-conflict-4-1-billion-needed-for-humanitarian-aid-in-2024-35f3c888

FROM UN NEWS

UN appeals for $4.1 billion in aid for war-torn Sudan and refugee-hosting countries

Wednesday, 7 February 2024

The United Nations on Wednesday urged countries not to forget millions of people caught up in the war between rival militaries in Sudan, as it called for $4.1 billion to help stave off famine and help those who have fled into neighbouring countries. “Half of Sudan’s population, 25 million people, needs humanitarian assistance,” Martin Griffiths, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, told journalists in Geneva. 

The appeal comprises two key components: the $2.7 billion Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan, targeting 14.7 million people within Sudan, and the $1.4 billion Regional Refugee Response Plan, aimed at assisting 2.7 million people in five countries surrounding Sudan. 

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) will manage the response in Sudan, while the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) will lead the regional initiative. 

Full story: https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/02/1146317

END

Agencies consider new aid route into Sudan from S. Sudan as humanitarian crisis worsens, cholera spreads

FIGHTING AND RED TAPE have hampered aid access in Sudan. Hunger and diseases including cholera are spreading. Aid agencies are looking at delivering aid to Sudan on a new route from South Sudan as they struggle to access much of the country. 

The war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has left nearly half of Sudan's 49 million people requiring aid. More than 7.5 million people have fled their homes, making Sudan the biggest displacement crisis globally, and hunger is rising. 

Aid supplies have been looted and humanitarian workers attacked, while international agencies and NGOs have long complained about bureaucratic obstacles to get into the army-controlled hub of Port Sudan and obtain travel permits for access to other parts of the country. Read more.

From Reuters

Reporting by Aidan Lewis

Editing by Christina Fincher

Dated Monday, 15 January 2024, 5:51 PM GMT - here is a copy in full:

Agencies consider new aid route into Sudan as humanitarian crisis worsens

Jan 15 (Reuters) - Aid agencies are looking at delivering aid to Sudan on a new route from South Sudan as they struggle to access much of the country, a senior U.N. official said on Monday, nine months into a war that has caused a major humanitarian crisis.

The war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has left nearly half of Sudan's 49 million people requiring aid. More than 7.5 million people have fled their homes, making Sudan the biggest displacement crisis globally, and hunger is rising.

Aid supplies have been looted and humanitarian workers attacked, while international agencies and NGOs have long complained about bureaucratic obstacles to get into the army-controlled hub of Port Sudan and obtain travel permits for access to other parts of the country.

"There's a very, very difficult operating environment, very hard," Rick Brennan, regional emergencies director for the World Health Organization (WHO), said in a press briefing in Cairo on Monday.

Aid agencies lost access to Wad Madani, a former aid hub in the important El Gezira agricultural region southeast of Khartoum, after the RSF seized it from the army last month.

The RSF's advance into El Gezira state and fighting that erupted recently involving the army, the RSF and Sudan's third-most powerful military force, the SPLM-North, in South Kordofan, have sparked new displacement.

U.N. and other agencies have been largely restricted to operating out of Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast, and delivering aid from Chad into the western region of Darfur, where there have been waves of ethnically-driven killings.

"We're also looking at establishing cross-border operations from South Sudan into the southern parts of the Kordofan states of Sudan," said Brennan.

DISEASE OUTBREAKS

Health services, already badly weakened when the war broke out in mid-April, have been further eroded.

"We have at least six major disease outbreaks, including cholera," said Brennan.

"We've also got outbreaks of measles and dengue fever, of vaccine-derived polio, of malaria and so on. And hunger levels are soaring as well because of the lack of access of food."

Diplomats and aid workers say that the army and officials aligned with it have hampered humanitarian access as both sides pursue their military campaigns. Activists say neighbourhood volunteers have been targeted.

They say the RSF does little to protect aid supplies and workers, and that its troops have been implicated in cases of looting. Read more.

Both sides have denied impeding aid.

The army and the RSF shared power with civilians after a popular uprising in 2019, staged a coup together in 2021, then came to blows over their status in a planned transition towards elections.

U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said in a statement last week that the reasons aid was not getting through were "frankly outrageous".

Customs clearances for supplies coming into the country could take up to 18 days, with further inspections under military supervision that could take even longer, he said.

Photo: A volunteer stirring food to be distributed to people in Omdurman, Sudan, September 3, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo

Photo: People hold pots as volunteers distribute food in Omdurman, Sudan, September 3, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo

View original: https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/agencies-consider-new-aid-route-into-sudan-humanitarian-crisis-worsens-2024-01-15/

ENDS