Sudan: Blood, sand and gold: victor’s city rises from ashes of Sudan’s civil war

The ruthless leader of country’s Arab militia has grand plans for the remote western province. But the transformation of Zurrug risks more unrest. Full story:

Blood, sand and gold: victor’s city rises from ashes of Sudan’s civil war

Report from the The Observer - www.theguardian.com

Observer dispatch Darfur

By KLAAS VAN DIJKEN

Dated Saturday 29 February 2020, 17.05 GMT

Photo: Children at the school in Zurrug sing anti-racism songs that praise the Rapid Support Forces. Photograph: Klaas van Dijken/Lighthouse Reports

Zurrug is one of the few towns on Earth that has yet to appear on Google maps. After nightfall, its sparse shacks are illuminated by campfires that throw shadows over pick-up trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns – the only hint of the violent past of this outpost in Darfur, Sudan’s troubled western province.

The town is being built on the spoils of a brutal war that once tore at the conscience of the world. The victors in that conflict have grand plans for this settlement based on a winner-takes-all vision for their home region – a vision that clouds the future of the whole of Sudan.

The Observer was given unprecedented access to this remote area of Darfur by the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group whose influence stretches from Sudan’s borderlands with Chad and Libya to the capital, Khartoum, where protesters last year toppled 30-year dictator Omar al-Bashir.

The RSF wants to show off a future city as evidence of the peace it has brought to this contested land. To the vanquished – scattered in their millions across desperate refugee camps within and beyond Sudan’s borders – Zurrug is an insult being built on stolen land.

Darfur and Bashir were back in the headlines last month when Sudan’s transitional government agreed to hand over the ousted president to the international criminal court to face charges of crimes against humanity. These crimes took place in Darfur from 2003, when Bashir unleashed Arab militia, with the backing of the Sudanese army, to crush an insurgency by black African tribes. What began as ethnic clashes over land and water escalated into a crisis that prompted western public demonstrations, celebrity activism and a genocide investigation.

Those armed herders were known at the time as the Janjaweed, or “devils on horseback”. Today they are called the RSF. Their leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo – long referred to as Hemedti – is Bashir’s heir apparent. A renowned and ruthless commander, he was called by Bashir “my protector”, a role that helped him become the wealthiest man in Sudan.

Zurrug is a world away from Khartoum, where riverine Arab elites created a metropolis thanks to their dominance of politics and economy. This makeshift town is a 10-hour drive across the vast plateau from Darfur’s northern city of El Fasher.

In its current form, Zurrug’s market has stalls hawking anything from Chinese phones to sacks of beans. The prefab clinic and school are speckled with the letters “UN”, a reminder that they have been jerry-built from the wreckage of the shrinking peacekeeping mission to Darfur, Unamid.

Photo: Rapid Support Forces on the way from Kutum towards Zurrug. Photograph: Klaas van Dijken/Lighthouse Reports

According to plans seen by the Observer, Zurrug will become a city. The documents call for residential areas, a hospital and town squares. Officials from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates visited in 2018 promising to help finance the work, including an international airport.

For now, two water towers mark the entrance to the town, placed there to slake the thirst of the camels, which vastly outnumber either people or vehicles. The largest house belongs to Juma Dagalo, the area’s chief and Hemedti’s uncle. “We were nomads, but now we want to develop ourselves, so we have to settle and send our children to school,” he said.

In his telling, Zurrug belongs to his ethnic group, the Mahariya, having been gifted to them by their former colonial masters, the British. The chief, who brought Hemedti up, says the land was empty.

This story of empty land is bitterly disputed by community leaders in the camps in north Darfur. They claim Zurrug is on land they inhabited for centuries before being forced to leave by the RSF, who used the same tactics – murder, rape and robbery – as the Janjaweed. One of these communities is the Zaghawa, a black African ethnic group who bore much of the brunt of the war crimes alleged in Bashir’s ICC indictment.

Mohamed Ibrahim, a Zaghawa chief or umda, said: “What Juma Dagalo is saying is not true. Zurrug was not empty land. We have our farms there but we cannot harvest. The RSF denies us access.”

Injustice and asymmetric war on civilians dominated much of the three decades that Bashir spent in power. His hold on office relied on a complex of alliances that spanned the Islamists, the army and support among the Arab middle class. Last year the regime collapsed as demonstrators in the cities demanded a civilian government. But insiders claim that Bashir stepped down only when Hemedti refused to use the RSF to crush the demonstrations. The protector switched allegiances from Bashir to the protestors in a move that saw him expand his support base far beyond Darfur.

“I stood beside the Sudanese people,” Hemedti told the Observer from his gilded residence in Khartoum. “A massacre would have happened herein Khartoum, a genocide would have happened on 11 April without our existence.”

The RSF is sanctioned by the state but its allegiance is to Hemedti, not Sudan’s army. His leadership of what is effectively a private army has reportedly helped him make a fortune from gold, construction and alleged smuggling. Hemedti denies that the men he commands perpetrated atrocities, either in their former guise as the Janjaweed or more recently as the RSF.

Today, Hemedti, whose Mahariya clan is part of the populous Rizeigat tribe, is vice-chairman of the sovereign council, the transitional body that is meant to guide Sudan to a new civilian government. But his credentials as protector of the people were stained in June last year when soldiers – many in RSF uniforms – attacked a civilian sit-in in the capital. More than 150 people were killed and many woman were raped. Hemedti denies ordering the violence and blames elements of the former regime seeking to discredit him. His denial is dismissed by most of the protest groups.

Photo: Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, the RSF leader. Photograph: STR/AP

Meanwhile, a struggle is being waged inside the Sovereign Council, and on the streets, to make good on the promise of a transition to civilian rule. The army retains a powerful, possibly decisive voice on the council. Straddling it all is Hemedti, not beholden to Sudan’s army, confident in his wealth and political support. He has the backing of influential Gulf States, cemented by sending the RSF to fight in Yemen alongside Saudi proxies in yet another gruesome conflict.

For now, Hemedti prefers to whitewash the RSF’s recent and deeper past, saying his forces have brought safety and stability to Darfur. On the issue of land, he appears magnanimous: “Whoever took land or built anything on land which is not his, he has to leave it. Everybody has to take his own old land.”

But those who have done the taking in north Darfur are overwhelmingly Hemedti’s own Mahariya people. His uncle, Juma Dagalo, has toured the region enticing members of his own ethnic group to come and settle in Zurrug and six other proto-towns around it. Each one has the same school and clinic, recycled from the UN bases. The teachers and doctors are on Hemedti’s payroll. Water towers, a practical and symbolic way of staking claim to land, have started to appear – all financed by the RSF.

A report last year from the UN panel of experts for Darfur concluded that development around Zurrug was meant to lure people from the cities. It also warned that it had the potential to “become a new source of conflict”.

The land issue is far from buried, and Darfur is part of the same negotiations between Sudan’s transitional government and various rebel groups that saw Bashir offered up to the ICC. Whatever those talks conclude, the facts on the ground are already being changed, with mono-ethnic settlements expanding every day.

After dark in Zurrug the children of the Mahariya gather around a single lightbulb to recite passages from the Qur’an. During the day they sing songs that mash up anti-racism slogans with praise for the RSF. These anthems would ring hollow with the disenfranchised Zaghawa, who have formed committees in their camps and written letters to Sudan’s new leadership. They have had no response and their leader, Mohamed Ibrahim, warns: “If we can’t solve this peacefully, we will take up arms again.”

View Original: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/29/darfur-towns-rise-out-of-ashes-of-sudan-war

Sudan: Militia strike gold to cast a shadow over Sudan's hopes of prosperity

Supported by wealthy foreign backers, a feared paramilitary outfit controls Sudan’s most lucrative industry, complicating the country’s path to democracy. Read more:

Militia strike gold to cast a shadow over Sudan's hopes of prosperity

Analysis from The Guardian UK

Written by Ruth Michaelson (funded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)

Dated 10 February 2020, 07.00 GMT

Photo: Sudanese Rapid Support Forces display gold bars seized from a plane that landed at Khartoum airport as part of an investigation into possible smuggling. Photograph: Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters

Ornate, heavy necklaces gleam on stands above stacks of thick filigree bangles in the windows of Khartoum’s gold market. The gold is Sudanese, dug from the rich mines that span the country.

Shop owner Bashir Abdulay hands over a palm-sized lump of pure gold with two small bore holes as he explains how the prized metal goes from mine deposit, through middlemen, to Khartoum.

Abdulay describes the Jebel Amer gold mine in Darfur [ https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sudan-darfur-gold/special-report-the-darfur-conflicts-deadly-gold-rush-idUSBRE99707G20131008 ], one of several controlled by the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group whose leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo [ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/29/hemedti-the-feared-commander-pulling-the-strings-in-sudan ] is now a central figure in Sudan’s transition to democracy.

“There are many people working there, some work on their own, others for the RSF. Everyone has his place, and the RSF have theirs,” he says, the metal twinkling in the bright shop lights. “The RSF have a big place producing gold, and selling it on their own.”

The RSF seized control of the Jebel Amer gold mine in Darfur in 2017, immediately making Dagalo, known as Hemedti, one of Sudan’s richest men. The RSF and Hemedti also control at least three other goldmines in other parts of the country, such as South Kordofan, making them a key player in an industry that produces Sudan’s largest export [ https://oec.world/en/profile/country/sdn/ ].

After the 2019 uprising that overthrew [ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/11/sudan-army-ousts-bashir-after-30-years-in-power ] former dictator Omar al-Bashir, Hemedti became part of the transitional military council and the sovereignty council designed to shepherd Sudan to democracy before elections are held in 2022.

Despite tentative government efforts to wrestle parts of the gold industry away from Sudan’s security services and back under state or private control, questions remain about whether Sudan [ https://www.theguardian.com/world/sudan ] can truly transition to democracy while the politically powerful RSF run a parallel economy all of their own.

To buy gold from the RSF, where do you go? Abdulay answers without hesitation: “Al Gunade have an office upstairs on the second floor,” he said, gesturing at the ceiling, unapologetically connecting the two organisations.

Al Gunade is a mining and trading corporation with deep ties to Hemedti and the RSF. Hemedti’s brother Abdul Rahim Dagalo and his sons are the three owners of Al Gunade, while reported RSF deputy Abdul Rahman al-Bakri is the general manager.

According to one of the documents [ https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6469821-Al-G.html#document/p1/a530944 ] obtained by the anti-corruption NGO Global Witness, Hemedti himself sits on the board of directors.

Photo: Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, head of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, at a meeting in Khartoum. Photograph: Ümit Bektaş/Reuters

After reviewing evidence of the activities of Al Gunade and the RSF, Global Witness concluded [ https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/conflict-minerals/exposing-rsfs-secret-financial-network/ ] that “the RSF and a connected company have captured a swathe of the country’s gold industry and are likely using it to fund their operations”.

The organisation obtained bank data and corporate documents that, they say, show the RSF maintains a bank account in their name at the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (now part of the First Abu Dhabi Bank) in the United Arab Emirates, providing “evidence of the financial autonomy of the RSF”.

The UAE is by far the largest importer of Sudanese gold in the world. Global trade data from 2018 shows it imported [ https://trademap.org/Country_SelProductCountry.aspx?nvpm=1%7c729%7c%7c%7c%7c7108%7c%7c%7c4%7c1%7c2%7c2%7c1%7c1%7c2%7c1%7c1 ] 99.2% of the country’s gold exports. The Gulf nation has also subcontracted RSF militiamen to fight in Yemen [ https://apnews.com/d5705f44afea4f0b91ec14bbadefae62 ] and Libya [ https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/1-000-sudanese-militiamen-arrive-in-libya ], providing funds to the RSF.

The relationship between Sudan’s gold, wealthy foreign backers and the RSF militia is concerning observers. Global Witness believes the RSF is “an organisation whose military power and financial independence poses a threat to a peaceful democratic transition in Sudan”.

A former camel-trader, Hemedti gained his nickname from the words “my protector”. Before taking part in the coup that toppled him, he was the right-hand man of former dictator Bashir. Hemedti’s RSF grew out of the infamous Janjaweed militia active in Darfur, described as “men with no mercy” and accused of war crimes in a 2015 Human Rights Watch report [ https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/09/09/men-no-mercy/rapid-support-forces-attacks-against-civilians-darfur-sudan ].

HRW found that during the RSF’s campaign in Darfur, the militia were responsible for “egregious abuses against civilians … torture, extrajudicial killings and mass rapes”, as well as “the forced displacement of entire communities; the destruction of wells, food stores and other infrastructure necessary for sustaining life in a harsh desert environment”.

Last June, the RSF were accused of attacking peaceful protesters [ https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/11/17/they-were-shouting-kill-them/sudans-violent-crackdown-protesters-khartoum ] to disperse a sit-in in Khartoum calling for a handover to civilian rule. Protestors and observers said [ https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/06/sudan-remove-rapid-support-forces-from-khartoum-streets-immediately/ ] the RSF brought the violent methods deployed in Blue Nile, South Kordofan and Darfur to the capital, shooting, stabbing, burning or crushing the skulls of at least 104 civilians, dumping bodies in the Nile, and raping at least 70 men and women.

Photo: Members of the Rapid Support Forces secure a site in Khartoum. Photograph: Ümit Bektaş/Reuters

The RSF have consistently denied their involvement. An investigation is ongoing.

“Hemedti himself, he understands the process of transition personally,” says Montaser Ibrahim, a former human rights defender who works with the RSF as an “unofficial consultant” on human rights. “This is one of the reasons that led me to deal with him.”

His new role has led to criticism from some in human rights activism, but Ibrahim sees the RSF as champions of minority rights, and Hemedti as a challenge against political elites.

“Hemedti is a revolutionary,” he says. He dismisses any notion of the RSF’s involvement in violence against protesters, branding accusations of war crimes against Hemedti and the Janjaweed as “propaganda”.

Both of Al Gunade’s two offices above Khartoum’s gold market are accessed via a dank staircase where bare wires jostle for space on the filthy walls.

Behind the tinted windows of Gunade’s offices, a kilogram gold bar sat on a lacquered wooden desk among office stationary, an ostentatious paperweight that may be the real thing. A man who repeatedly refused to give his name referred all questions about Al Gunade to the central bank, opening the office door to indicate that no further discussion would be accepted.

Sudanese authorities have begun attempts to overhaul the gold trade, dissolving mining companies involved with the former regime’s security services. Sudan now allows private traders to export gold [ https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sudan-gold/sudan-opens-up-gold-market-in-bid-to-raise-revenue-idUSKBN1Z81M2 ] provided 30% of deposits remain in the central bank.

An official from Sudan’s mining ministry, who cannot be named as they are not permitted to brief the media, said extra checks are made to screen out companies associated with the previous regime. The official said that the people behind a company mattered less than whether or not it followed the rules. 

“Now even if the head of the transitional military council came himself, he has to go with the regulations,” the official said.

Photo: Goldmine workers wait to get their raw gold weighed at a shop in the town of al-Fahir in North Darfur. Photograph: Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters

Mohammed Tabidi, a Khartoum gold trader, says the new gold trading laws are a world away from those under the previous government that forced traders to buy gold from Sudan’s security services, or face arrest. “It’s a free market now,” he says.

He is hopeful about the possibilities of free trade amid a powerful black market and spiralling inflation that make daily life a struggle for many. Around the corner from the glistening mall where Tabidi works, men perch on bonnets in a car park, flicking fat wads of Sudanese pounds to signal their trade to drivers passing through. The official rate of 25 Sudanese pounds to the dollar is obsolete compared with the black market rate of 75, maybe even 80.

Tabidi says that while gold companies associated with other security services were rendered obsolete by the overhaul, Al Gunade remained.

“There is no company similar to Al Gunade [now],” he says. “There is nothing else like it.” The law is in flux, he says, and it is up to the authorities whether Al Gunade will continue.

“If export opens for traders, maybe Al Gunade won’t work,” he says. “But if they get a deal with the ministry of finance, they can.”

“Hemedti now is vice-president,” he said. “There are some things I can’t talk about.”

The RSF said [ https://www.globalwitness.org/en/press-releases/global-witness-response-to-news-that-head-of-sudans-rapid-support-forces-preparing-to-hand-over-gold-mining-areas-to-hamdouk-government/ ] in December that they would hand control of Jebel Amer to the government. Who will reap the profits remains very much in question, given the lack of transparency in Sudan’s gold industry and the difficulties in controlling a supply chain plagued by smuggling and remote sites controlled by militias. There are also few safeguards in place to prevent the RSF and Al Gunade operating illegally.

Richard Kent of Global Witness is critical of the RSF’s claim: “We welcome the development because it is potentially very beneficial to the Sudanese people and gold industry, but it’s still unclear exactly what this means,” he says. “Does this mean giving up the Al Gunade concession, reinstating some kind of civil or traditional administration – and if so how would that work, would it be independently appointed by the civilian government?”

Political transition offers the tools needed to transform Sudan’s most lucrative industry, cleaning up ministries and the supply chain. But there is a long road ahead before the Sudanese gold industry reaches the standards set by international observer bodies such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

“There needs to be a level of transparency in the process,” Kent says. “The RSF and to a lesser extent other security agencies haven’t demonstrated [that] in other areas of their business until now. The reality is, there are still a lot of individuals associated with the intelligence agencies riddled throughout the industry and ministries. As long as general intelligence service and the RSF still have a hold over natural resources and over governing institutions, it’s very hard to see how the gold industry would be able to implement the internationally accepted standards it needs to improve and attract investment.”

Sipping tea outside a French cultural centre where he is taking classes, the RSF’s consultant Ibrahim, an avid reader of Paulo Coelho, says: “The RSF looks like a rebel force. But we need to use them to change the political situation in Sudan.”

Ibrahim’s role illustrates the RSF’s hints of reform and change. While Ibrahim is very concerned about being misunderstood, he declines to say whether he is paid, what the job actually entails or whether he believes there are receptive RSF ears for his talk of human rights.

“Hemedti believes in the revolution – I know you might be shocked by this,” he says.

Ibrahim maintained that the only way forward for Sudan’s transition is for cooperation between civil society and the security sector. He believes he is part of the solution, not the problem. “The security sector in Sudan can’t be cut from the political process,” he says. “This doesn’t contradict the idea of democracy.”

Formerly a “a political adviser” to the Sudan Liberation Army, Darfur-based militants, Ibrahim says he became a prisoners’ rights campaigner during Bashir’s regime and his latest role is the apex of a long journey in Sudanese politics. He has created an organisation within the RSF intended to provide training “for NGOs and civil society”. But not the RSF themselves? “No,” he answers dismissively.

Members of the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), an umbrella trade union association that spearheaded the mass protests leading to Bashir’s overthrow, are confident that Sudan’s path towards democracy isn’t threatened by the RSF or their economic interests, says their spokesman Dr Mohanad Hamid.

“Hemedti is dangerous not because he’s one of the richest men in Sudan, but because he has an army, a militia in pure terms that’s independent from the Sudanese army – this is the issue,” he says. “Of course the economy is one of the main concerns, [but] peace is also one of the main concerns.”

Photo: Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, centre, waves a baton as he arrives for a rally in the village of Abraq, about 60km north-west of Khartoum. Photograph: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images

Hamid is confident that Hemedti and the RSF’s wealth won’t present a problem, provided their businesses are eventually brought under state control. “It’s all of four months since the beginning of the transitional period – this process is years,” he says. “If we get all the money back into the ministry of finance at the end of the three years it will be great, but we’re still waiting.”

Other SPA representatives, like Dr Batoul Altayeb, are unfazed by the RSF.

After protesters staged a mass demonstration [ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/13/sudanese-protesters-demand-justice-after-mass-killings ] against the RSF and the military following the Khartoum massacre, the SPA believe people power can contain the force of the RSF.

“We did it before and we will do it again,” says Altayeb calmly. “[The sovereign council] includes the RSF because they know that peace is the key before the economy. Democracy is on the way – it’s a process, not just an outcome.”

This article was corrected on 10 February 2020 to clarify the ownership structure of Al Gunade. This article was amended on 11 February 2020 to add additional comments from the Sudanese Professionals Association. About this content This website [above] is funded by support provided, in part, by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The journalism and other content is editorially independent and its purpose is to focus on global development.

View Original: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2010/sep/14/about-this-site

Sudan: Ongoing turf war in Sudan - China, Russia reject calls for freeze on UN pullout from Sudan

NOTE from Sudan Watch editor: I have just read the the executive summary of the Sentry’s paper entitled Loan Wolves [https://thesentry.org/reports/loan-wolves/].

The last sentence, regarding Sudan, states that: 

“The country’s current military leaders and the new civilian government must therefore expose corrupt actors and hold them accountable while implementing strict measures to limit their influence”

In my view the whole paper is crazy. I shan’t be reprinting it here at Sudan Watch. Makes me wonder what John Prendergast & Co are smoking over there in the Sentry.

Despite some gaps and errors, essential reading: “The Ongoing Turf War in Sudan: Violent clashes between elements of Sudan’s security forces threaten the country’s progress toward democracy,” by Samuel Ramani, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace https://t.co/45xFBQ9q2F pic.twitter.com/R3i3iQc8X2

— Eric Reeves (@sudanreeves) February 21, 2020

NOTE from Sudan Watch editor: Eric Reeves’ tweet 21 Feb 2020 (above) links to a 20 Feb 2020 article at Carnegie Endowment.org by Samuel Ramani entitled The Ongoing Turf War in Sudan [https://carnegieendowment.org/sada/81119]. The article is a really good read. Upon reading the line, “Russia’s opposition to a UN peacekeeping presence in Darfur indirectly strengthens the RSF’s influence in that region” I followed its link to a 15 June 2019 news report by AFP entitled China, Russia reject calls for freeze on UN pullout from Sudan [https://www.thenational.ae/world/africa/china-russia-reject-calls-for-freeze-on-un-pullout-from-sudan-1.874526]. 

The article made me think of PM Hamdok’s filmed interview in Germany with Ms Aya Ibrahim of Deutsche Welle at the Munich Security Conference 17 Feb 2020 entitled Hamdok: 'Anyone who committed atrocities must be tried' [https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/other/sudans-pm-hamdok-anyone-who-committed-atrocities-must-be-tried/ar-BB105Y0Y] in which he talked about wanting the UN in the whole of Sudan under Chapter VI (note, not Chapter VII). 

Then it dawned on me: Chapter VI would free up PM Hamdok and his and Sudan's worldwide supporters to work in Sudan’s best interests and stop Russia and China vetoing votes on Sudan at UN Security Council. 

And, if needed, the Eastern Africa Standby Force (EASF) has 5,200 troops ready to be deployed anywhere (Sudan Watch, 27 June 2019 - Eastern Africa Standby Force EASF is watching Sudan closely, playing an advisory role, ready to deploy if situation turns genocidal https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2019/06/eastern-africa-standby-force-easf-is.html)

Samuel Ramani is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Politics and International Relations at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford, England, UK. Follow him on Twitter @samramani2 [https://twitter.com/SamRamani2]

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FURTHER READING

Russia’s secretive military operations on the rise in Africa

Article by and from AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY

Dated 14 August 2019

https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2019/08/russias-secretive-military-operations.html

Sudan: UNHCR supporting 18,000 displaced by violence in Darfur & rushing relief to 40,000 IDPs in W. Darfur & 5,500 Sudanese in 12 villages in Chad

NOTE from Sudan Watch editor: Further below is a copy of UNHCR's SUDANFLASH Update dated 08 January 2020. It says it is supporting 18,000 people displaced by violence in Darfur and is rushing relief to 40,000 displaced people in West Darfur and that 5,500 people fled to 12 villages in Chad. 

I say, it is sad to note once again the lack of sanitation facilities, water and inadequate humanitarian aid: UNHCR provided plastic sheets to support construction of 50 emergency latrines (50 latrines for thousands of people!); the 5,500 who fled to Chad are staying in the open or under makeshift shelters, offering little to no protection from the elements. 

How on earth is a multi-billion dollar organisation such as UNHCR and partners managing to get away with providing inadequate basic aid after spending 15 years in Sudan to get it right in Darfur and nearby Chad?

• Additional distributions should bring the total number of recipients to 18,000 by 8 January. 
• More Non Food Items (NFIs) are in the pipeline. 
• A majority of the displaced, currently scattered at 25 gathering points, found shelter in schools, mosques and government buildings that are not equipped for this purpose and lack sanitation facilities and water. UNHCR provided plastic sheets to support the construction of 50 emergency latrines. 
• In addition to the internal displacement in West Darfur, some 5,500 individuals fled to 12 nearby villages in Chad, as assessed by a joint mission of UNHCR and Chadian authorities. They are staying in the open or under makeshift shelters, offering little to no protection from the elements. 

Extract from a report by Radio Dabanga.org 

Dated 09 January 2010 - EK GENEINA /KHARTOUM, SUDAN

UNHCR

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says that it and its partners are supporting 18,000 people displaced by violence in Darfur with urgently needed blankets and relief items.

In a flash update issued yesterday [Sudan Watch ed: see copy of UNHCR SUDANFLASH dated 08 Jan 2020 further below] the agency says that an inter-agency response through the Non-Food Item Pipeline, managed by UNHCR, is rushing relief items to some 40,000 displaced men, women and children in West Darfur. In addition, a UNHCR mission in Chad found some 5,500 Sudanese men, women and children who had fled across the border to seek shelter in 12 villages.

In the first days of the distribution, UNHCR distributed non-food item (NFI) kits to over 8,000 vulnerable people. Together with the UN Migration Agency IOM and SRCS (Sudanese Red Crescent Society), an additional 3,000 men, women and children received critical NFIs, including blankets, sleeping mats and jerry cans. Additional distributions should bring the total number of recipients to 18,000 by 8 January. More NFIs are in the pipeline, the statement says.

Photo: UNHCR and partners organising distribution of aid in El Geneina on 6 January. (Photo: UNHCR)

A majority of the displaced, currently scattered at 25 gathering points, found shelter in schools, mosques and government buildings that are not equipped for this purpose and lack sanitation facilities and water. UNHCR provided plastic sheets to support the construction of 50 emergency latrines.

In addition to the internal displacement in West Darfur, some 5,500 individuals fled to 12 nearby villages in Chad, as assessed by a joint mission of UNHCR and Chadian authorities. They are staying in the open or under makeshift shelters, offering little to no protection from the elements.

View Original: https://www.dab

angasudan.org/en/all-news/article/high-committee-west-darfur-crisis-not-tribal

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NOTE from Sudan Watch editor: 
Here is a copy of UNHCR SUDANFLASH UPDATE dated 08 January 2020:

WEST DARFUR 

UNHCR and partners support 18,000 people displaced by violence in Darfur with urgently needed blankets and relief items 

An inter-agency response through the Non-Food Item Pipeline, managed by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is rushing relief items to some 40,000 displaced men, women and children in West Darfur. 

In recent weeks, intercommunal clashes between Massalit and Arab tribes in El Geneina, West Darfur, displaced tens of thousands of people, most of whom had already been displaced before and resided in three camps for internally displaced people (IDPs). Current estimates put the total number of displaced at 40,000. In addition, a UNHCR mission in Chad found some 5,500 Sudanese men, women and children who had fled across the border to seek shelter in 12 villages. 

In the first days of the distribution, UNHCR distributed non-food item (NFI) kits to over 8,000 vulnerable people. Together with the UN Migration Agency IOM and SRCS (Sudanese Red Crescent Society), an additional 3,000 men, women and children received critical NFIs, including blankets, sleeping mats and jerry cans. Additional distributions should bring the total number of recipients to 18,000 by 8 January. More NFIs are in the pipeline. 

A majority of the displaced, currently scattered at 25 gathering points, found shelter in schools, mosques and government buildings that are not equipped for this purpose and lack sanitation facilities and water. UNHCR provided plastic sheets to support the construction of 50 emergency latrines. 

In addition to the internal displacement in West Darfur, some 5,500 individuals fled to 12 nearby villages in Chad, as assessed by a joint mission of UNHCR and Chadian authorities. They are staying in the open or under makeshift shelters, offering little to no protection from the elements. 

A Coordinated Response by UNHCR and Partners 

■ UNHCR coordinated the humanitarian response to the serious and evolving situation at the outset. In the meantime, OCHA has taken over this coordination. 

ISSUE NO. 1 – 8 JANUARY 2020 

Photo: UNHCR and partners organizing the distribution at the Municipality Distribution Center, El Geneina Town, West Darfur on 6 January 2020. ©UNHCR 

• NHCR together with IOM, ICRC and NGO partners, such as Catholic Relief Services and SRCS, is currently distributing urgently needed NFIs to the most vulnerable households. 
• UNHCR has informed over 100 IDP representatives on criteria how to identify and prioritize the most vulnerable. 
• WFP, WHO, UNFPA, UNICEF, the Ministry of Health and NGO partners are supporting the health and nutrition responses, ranging from in-patient kits to ready-to-use therapeutic food. 
• Key Challenges 

• Security remains a major concern at distribution points and when dispatching materials to West Darfur. 
• Provision of sustainable shelter: Once people have relocated to a safe location, more sustainable shelter solutions, complemented with NFIs such as plastic sheeting and kitchen sets, will have to be provided. 

NFI Pipeline - Explained 

UNHCR manages the NFI Common Pipeline which is a source of reliable, predictable Emergency Shelter and Non-Food Items for partners. 

UNHCR procures, warehouses and transports NFIs to the locations of distribution in Darfur and beyond. Standardized processes reduce costs, avoid duplications of efforts, harmonize the quality and type of items, and thus promote effectiveness. 

This ensures a better response to urgent needs of newly displaced and disaster-affected populations who have lost their household belongings. The provision of NFIs has an important impact on health and dignity of refugees and IDPs by protecting them from the elements, providing physical protection (sun, rain and privacy), thus reducing health risks and increasing safety. 

[CONTACT US] 

Roland Schönbauer 

Senior External Relations Officer UNHCR Office Khartoum 

Tel.: +249 1 83 472 424 Email: schoenb@unhcr.org Twitter: @R_Schoenbauer

Doris Kuen 

Associate Reporting Officer (Protection) UNHCR Office Khartoum 

Tel.: +249 91 215 7165 Email: kuen@unhcr.org 

View Original: https://www.dabangasudan.org/uploads/media/5e1739bcc2be7.pdf

Sudan: Inquiry by PHR finds that authorities armed and orchestrated security forces that killed more than 200 pro-democracy protesters

An inquiry by the New York-based advocacy organisation Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) finds that authorities armed and orchestrated security forces that killed more than 200 pro-democracy protesters in June 2019. 

PHR is calling on UN member states to sanction the Sudanese officials responsible for the human rights abuses and for Sudan’s civilian-military government to include human rights, rule of law and accountability protections in the nation’s new constitution. Full story:

Sudan accused of masterminding lethal attacks on Khartoum protesters

Inquiry finds that authorities armed and orchestrated security forces that killed more than 200 pro-democracy protesters

Report from The Guardian.com 

Global development

By Kate Hodal @katehodal

Dated Thursday 05 March 2020 13.03 GMT, Last modified 8.07 GMT - here is a copy in full:

Photo: Demonstrators hold a banner bearing images of protesters allegedly killed in unrest in Khartoum in June 2019. Photograph: Marwan Ali/EPA

Sudanese security forces systematically planned and coordinated a series of deadly attacks that killed up to 241 pro-democracy protesters and injured hundreds more at a Khartoum sit-in last year, an inquiry has found.

Authorities “purposefully pre-positioned” state security forces armed with tear gas, whips and assault rifles in the month before the protests began, and “intentionally targeted” medical personnel and facilities during and after the protests, according to the New York-based advocacy organisation Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), which led an investigation into the violence.

The findings were based on interviews with 30 survivors of the 3 June massacre, eyewitness accounts, and analysis of thousands of still and video images of the protests, among other sources of information. They contradict previous theories that the attacks on the protest camp were spontaneous, or the work of “rogue” military personnel, as a government-led inquiry indicated.

“The June 3 massacre against Sudanese civilians at the hands of government security forces is an egregious violation of human rights,” said Phelim Kine, PHR’s director of research and investigations.

“Security forces’ horrific tactics – sexual violence, including rape, use of tear gas, whips, batons, and live ammunition – killed and critically injured hundreds of civilians. To support the national commission charged with investigating these crimes, the Sudanese legal and human rights community, as well as international bodies such as the United Nations and the African Union, must conduct further investigation into the full scope of government-perpetrated violence on June 3.”

Photo: Sudanese forces deployed to disperse the Khartoum sit-in are seen around army headquarters on 3 June, 2019. Photograph: Ashraf Shazly/AFP/Getty Images

Grassroots pro-democracy protests began in December 2018 [ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/25/sudan-clashes-between-security-forces-and-anti-bashir-protesters-prompt-concern ] in the centre of Khartoum in opposition to three decades of autocratic rule by Omar al-Bashir. The unrest continued after the president was ousted by military generals in April 2019 as protesters called for power to be ceded to civilians.

On 3 June, armed men in military uniform – many of whom declared themselves to be members of the Rapid Support Forces – stormed the peaceful sit-in that had been camped for months outside the military headquarters, shooting, stabbing, beating, raping and humiliating protestors.

Interviewees told PHR how security forces taunted them while beating, burning, and cutting them. One witness described an attempt by armed men to sexually assault him after they detained and tortured him, cutting open a healed wound and putting out cigarettes in it. Several interviewees said they had seen women gang-raped in broad daylight. 

Others described being shot at, beaten with whips and batons, and suffering severe post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.

PHR said some survivors would suffer from a lifetime of chronic pain and disability as a result of their injuries.

One interviewee, Muna, recounted how she had been wearing skinny jeans during the protests. She reported that a soldier from the Rapid Support Forces – a paramilitary force heavily armed by Bashir – grabbed her and said: “How do we get her pants off her? Give me a blade so we can tear it off her.”

A doctor interviewed by PHR said he was directly targeted by soldiers, who pointed automatic weapons at him as they yelled: “You’re the reason for all this chaos and this whole mess … You’re the reason why the country’s like this. You’re the reason why we kill people. You’re the reason why people die.”

The attacks were used to “intimidate and silence those demanding civilian rule and major reforms in Sudan”, said PHR’s director of policy, Susannah Sirkin, who contributed to the report.

“As doctors and their organisations were at the forefront of calls for change in Sudan, they were a target. As those who treated injured protesters, or received bodies in the morgues, they were doubly targeted. As credible witnesses to gross human rights violations and their physical and psychological impacts, they were triply targeted.”

The report echoed similar findings, published by Human Rights Watch [ https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/11/17/they-were-shouting-kill-them/sudans-violent-crackdown-protesters-khartoum ] in November, which concluded that “the number of forces deployed in the operation against the sit-in – estimated in the thousands – suggests official operational planning”.

Medical expert Rohini Haar, who serves as research and investigations adviser at PHR, said: “This pattern of targeted attacks on healthcare is a recurring weapon used by Sudanese security forces that violates the obligation and rights of medical personnel to treat those in need, threatens the lives of medical workers, and has a devastating impact on civilians.”

PHR is calling on UN member states to sanction the Sudanese officials responsible for the human rights abuses and for Sudan’s civilian-military government to include human rights, rule of law and accountability protections in the nation’s new constitution.

Global development is supported by BILL & MELINDA GATES foundation

View Original: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/mar/05/sudan-accused-of-masterminding-lethal-attacks-on-khartoum-protesters

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