- From Reuters:
KHARTOUM, March 22 (Reuters) - Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir threatened on Monday to expel international election monitors after they said April's vote may have to be delayed.
"We brought these organisations from outside to monitor the elections, but if they ask for them to be delayed, we will throw them out," Bashir said in comments broadcast on state TV.
"We wanted them to see the free and fair elections, but if they interfere in our affairs, we will cut their fingers off, put them under our shoes, and throw them out," Bashir added.
The only long-term international observer mission in Sudan said last week that the country may need a slight delay in its first multi-party elections in 24 years to deal with logistical problems, with hundreds of thousands of names missing from the voters' list weeks before the polls.
Carter Center officials issued a report saying Sudan's April presidential and legislative elections remained "at risk on multiple fronts" and urged Sudan to lift harsh restrictions on rallies and end fighting in Darfur ahead of the ballot.
The Center declined to comment until it was able to review the president's speech.
Bashir expelled major aid agencies from Darfur after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him in March last year for war crimes in Darfur.
OPPOSITION CRITICISMS
The opposition has criticized Sudan's National Elections Commission for making decisions they said favoured Bashir's ruling party.
Opposition presidential candidate Mubarak al-Fadil told Reuters the warning made it clear Bashir was worried.
"He (Bashir) is very nervous. He may do it," al-Fadil said.
Voting is due to start in Africa's largest country on April 11 in elections promised under a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of north-south civil war.
Sudan is preparing for some of the most complex elections on record with at least six different votes using three different voting systems. The ballot, originally scheduled before July 2009, has already been delayed several times.
The Carter Center, a non-governmental organization founded by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter that aims to further democracy and human rights, said preparations by Sudan's National Elections Commission were lagging.
Many opposition parties have called for the elections to be postponed, saying Sudan needs time to pass democratic reforms.
A European Union election observer mission arrived in Sudan this month.
- From Reuters:
KHARTOUM, March 22 (Reuters) - Sudanese police demolished the homes and surrounded the residents of a refugee camp in the outskirts of Khartoum on Monday, just three weeks ahead of the first multi-party polls in 24 years, residents said.
After U.N. condemnations, Sudan had largely stopped forcibly relocating and demolishing homes in the slums surrounding the capital, filled with millions of people who fled conflict and hardship in the east, south and western Darfur regions.
But on Sunday night residents of Soba al-Shahanat, mostly from the troubled Darfur region, said they saw dozens of their homes and shops demolished by bulldozers.
They refused to move and on Monday a Reuters witness said they were surrounded by a police cordon and barbed wire fence hindering the delivery of food and water.
"We cannot allow this kind of barbaric behaviour to happen in Khartoum," said Edward Lino, the former southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement's electoral candidate for Khartoum governor during a visit to the camp.
April's first multi-party elections in 24 years have raised tensions in Africa's largest country with youth activists complaining of harassment and the opposition accusing the ruling party of anti-constitutional restrictions on freedom of expression and association.
At least one journalist was arrested and beaten by authorities for trying to film the operation, a Reuters witness said.
"They put up barbed wire around the area," said one female resident from Darfur who did not give her name. "We can't eat or drink or stay, we are all just sitting around in the sun."
"FENCING AND DESTRUCTION"
Sudan's governor was not immediately available to comment but the authorities have previously said they always give residents notice and provide them with adequate compensation and alternative land before moving them.
"The agreement was that they were to prepare for us a different place with everything -- infrastructure, streets, electricity, water -- then they give us our land and five months to move," said Abdallah Mohamed Ahmed, an independent candidate for the area in April elections.
"(But) until now they did not give us our land and as you can see -- the fencing and destruction."
The move is likely to be unpopular in the politicised camps surrounding the capital.
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir threatened to expel the international observers of Sudan's presidential and legislative elections on Monday, which opposition candidates said showed he was worried he may not win.
The polls are a key benchmark of a 2005 peace deal ending more than two decades of north-south civil war which destabilized much of east Africa and claimed an estimated 2 million lives.
It is quickly followed by a January, 2011 southern referendum on secession, which many analysts believe will create Africa's newest nation state.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Day 343 - March 17th
- From Radio Dabanga:
investigation about performance of Humanitarian Affairs Ministry
KHARTOUM (17 Mar.) – The Council of Ministers in Khartoum have called for an investigation about the performance of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs after the sacking of Commissioner of Humanitarian Affairs Hassabu Mohamed Abdel Rhman by Minister Abdulbagi al Gilani. The council was convened to discuss the issue after newspaper reports claimed that the commissioner was sacked due to irregularities at the ministry. Sources revealed the disappearance of 10 billion pounds allocated for reconstruction of Darfur.
- From Radio Dabanga
Arrest of seven people from East Jebel Marra
NYALA (17 Mar.) - Security authorities in Nyala arrested seven people who came originally from Alo Dibenera and Jawa, east of Jebel Marra. Sources told Radio Dabanga that the people were arrested Sunday night at their home in the Khartoum Bileil district north of Nyala. They were ordered to get into a vehicle which drove to an unknown destination. Their families fear of torture and ill-treatment and demanded that their relatives be released immediately or get a fair trial.
investigation about performance of Humanitarian Affairs Ministry
KHARTOUM (17 Mar.) – The Council of Ministers in Khartoum have called for an investigation about the performance of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs after the sacking of Commissioner of Humanitarian Affairs Hassabu Mohamed Abdel Rhman by Minister Abdulbagi al Gilani. The council was convened to discuss the issue after newspaper reports claimed that the commissioner was sacked due to irregularities at the ministry. Sources revealed the disappearance of 10 billion pounds allocated for reconstruction of Darfur.
- From Radio Dabanga
Arrest of seven people from East Jebel Marra
NYALA (17 Mar.) - Security authorities in Nyala arrested seven people who came originally from Alo Dibenera and Jawa, east of Jebel Marra. Sources told Radio Dabanga that the people were arrested Sunday night at their home in the Khartoum Bileil district north of Nyala. They were ordered to get into a vehicle which drove to an unknown destination. Their families fear of torture and ill-treatment and demanded that their relatives be released immediately or get a fair trial.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Day 334 - March 8th
- From Radio Dabanga:
Villagers flee to Zalingei from Jebal Marra West Darfur
ZALINGEI (8 Mar.) – A large number of villagers of Bishara al Tayeb, Koga and Kobaloo in Jebel Marra localities fled to Zalingei IDP camps as a result of the clashes in the area since last week. An IDP from Zalingei told Radio Dabanga that dozens of families arrived to Hammidiya and Tayba IDP camps in Zalingei in a very poor humanitarian situation. The IDP’s appealed to humanitarian organizations to provide help for the newcomers.
Villagers flee to Zalingei from Jebal Marra West Darfur
ZALINGEI (8 Mar.) – A large number of villagers of Bishara al Tayeb, Koga and Kobaloo in Jebel Marra localities fled to Zalingei IDP camps as a result of the clashes in the area since last week. An IDP from Zalingei told Radio Dabanga that dozens of families arrived to Hammidiya and Tayba IDP camps in Zalingei in a very poor humanitarian situation. The IDP’s appealed to humanitarian organizations to provide help for the newcomers.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Day 326 - March 1st
- No access to new crisis area Darfur: ten thousands on the run, hundreds killed
(Radio Dabanga)
KHARTOUM (2 Mar) – Not the UN nor any other international humanitarian organization has access to the Darfur war-zone in Jebel Marra, where during the last days hundreds of people have been reportedly killed during clashes between government militias and inter faction fighting within the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM). The last organization that had to move out, was Medicins du Monde due to attacks. Witnesses reported Radio Dabanga last week that the clashes had flared up, but the spokes office of the Darfur peacekeeping force UNAMID was not able to confirm any information coming from the area. Also the humanitarian office of the UN, UNOCHA could not confirm since none the UN organization had access to the remote are. Last week, the international observers were celebrating a new framework agreement towards peace in Darfur between the government and one of the rebel factions, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). President Bashir announced last week that the war in Darfur ‘was over’. Today the JEM walked away from the negotiating table, after the government started also bilateral peace talks with other rebel factions.
The Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) denied that they are involved in the attacks at local markets and villages, but the rebel groups of the SLA told Radio Dabanga that the government is behind the fighting. The SLA counted 340 tot 360 confirmed dead casualties, but Radio Dabanga did not receive independent confirmation. Reuters cited non identified UN sources confirming a figure between 140 and 400 people killed in the last battle. Radio Dabanga was not able to get a clear picture what caused the most victims. Some local observers say that some inter factional fighting also contributed to the death toll. But they all mention government militia being involved in a range of attacks.
Before the weekend, the NGO Médecins du Monde, had been forced to suspend its medical activities throughout the area Deribat in the Feina region after a severe attack. The fighting has raged for several days. Deribat is a town of 50 000 inhabitants and was attacked last Wednesday as reported by Radio Dabanga. Médecins du Monde says the fighting was triggering a ‘massive exodus’ by the population and bringing the total number of displaced people in the region to over 100 000.
Médecins du Monde says it is deeply concerned about the health-related consequences of these population displacements: lack of access to health care, inadequate access to drinking water, risk of outbreaks of meningitis and the early arrival of the “hunger gap” this year linked to poor harvests that threatens to increase the incidence of acute malnutrition, particularly among children under five. Médecins du Monde condemned the looting carried out at the Feina health center on 18th February that has deprived the area’s 30 000 inhabitants of their only efficient healthcare facility. A week before due to fighting in the areas of Kidingeer and Leiba, the organization was already obliged to evacuate its foreign aid workers from the Jebel Mara on 11th February.
(Radio Dabanga)
KHARTOUM (2 Mar) – Not the UN nor any other international humanitarian organization has access to the Darfur war-zone in Jebel Marra, where during the last days hundreds of people have been reportedly killed during clashes between government militias and inter faction fighting within the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM). The last organization that had to move out, was Medicins du Monde due to attacks. Witnesses reported Radio Dabanga last week that the clashes had flared up, but the spokes office of the Darfur peacekeeping force UNAMID was not able to confirm any information coming from the area. Also the humanitarian office of the UN, UNOCHA could not confirm since none the UN organization had access to the remote are. Last week, the international observers were celebrating a new framework agreement towards peace in Darfur between the government and one of the rebel factions, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). President Bashir announced last week that the war in Darfur ‘was over’. Today the JEM walked away from the negotiating table, after the government started also bilateral peace talks with other rebel factions.
The Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) denied that they are involved in the attacks at local markets and villages, but the rebel groups of the SLA told Radio Dabanga that the government is behind the fighting. The SLA counted 340 tot 360 confirmed dead casualties, but Radio Dabanga did not receive independent confirmation. Reuters cited non identified UN sources confirming a figure between 140 and 400 people killed in the last battle. Radio Dabanga was not able to get a clear picture what caused the most victims. Some local observers say that some inter factional fighting also contributed to the death toll. But they all mention government militia being involved in a range of attacks.
Before the weekend, the NGO Médecins du Monde, had been forced to suspend its medical activities throughout the area Deribat in the Feina region after a severe attack. The fighting has raged for several days. Deribat is a town of 50 000 inhabitants and was attacked last Wednesday as reported by Radio Dabanga. Médecins du Monde says the fighting was triggering a ‘massive exodus’ by the population and bringing the total number of displaced people in the region to over 100 000.
Médecins du Monde says it is deeply concerned about the health-related consequences of these population displacements: lack of access to health care, inadequate access to drinking water, risk of outbreaks of meningitis and the early arrival of the “hunger gap” this year linked to poor harvests that threatens to increase the incidence of acute malnutrition, particularly among children under five. Médecins du Monde condemned the looting carried out at the Feina health center on 18th February that has deprived the area’s 30 000 inhabitants of their only efficient healthcare facility. A week before due to fighting in the areas of Kidingeer and Leiba, the organization was already obliged to evacuate its foreign aid workers from the Jebel Mara on 11th February.
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