Sudan: Russia Wants Access to Red Sea

Sudanese Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim (Reuters)
Sudanese Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim (Reuters)
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Sudan: Russia Wants Access to Red Sea

Sudanese Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim (Reuters)
Sudanese Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim (Reuters)

Sudan’s Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim said that a Russian ambition to have presence on the Sudanese coast does not entail a military role.

Speaking to the Russian RT TV Arabic Service, Ibrahim clarified that the discussions primarily focus on Russia’s desire for Red Sea access, rather than purchasing land. He emphasized Sudan’s openness to such partnerships, stating: “The idea is not about military experts or a large base, but rather a service center for Russian ships to obtain supplies.”

He said Sudan “does not object to the Russian presence, but the opposition comes from the West, the US and its allies,” stressing that Sudan’s coast on the Red Sea “can accommodate everyone if the United States wants to buy a similar point.”

Official Sudanese sources had spoken to the media about the existence of a draft agreement between Sudan and Russia that gives Moscow a “military, technical and logistical support center” on the Red Sea coast in the east of the country.

In return, the draft agreement stipulates that Russia will provide the Sudanese army with war equipment, based on a separate protocol. The sources added that the Russian presence should not exceed 300 individuals and four ships, as per the same agreement.

Meanwhile, a statement by the Sudanese Sovereignty Council announced that urgent matters prevented Russian President Vladimir Putin from meeting with the Council’s Vice-President, Malik Agar.

Putin assigned his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, to receive the written message addressed to Putin from the Chairman of the Sovereignty Council and Commander of the Sudanese Army, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan.

Before heading to Russia on Tuesday, Agar announced that he would meet with Putin and deliver a written message from Al-Burhan. He added that the meeting will discuss that agenda that falls within the framework of developing bilateral relations.

The Sudanese delegation’s trip to Russia came in the wake of the visit made by the Deputy Foreign Minister and Russian President’s envoy to the Middle East and Africa, Mikhail Bogdanov, to the city of Port Sudan in April.

During his meeting with Lavrov on Friday, Agar affirmed his country’s readiness to activate the joint political and military agreements and committees between the two countries to draw a roadmap to reach the stage of strategic partnership.

He also emphasized Sudan’s keenness to strengthen, promote and develop bilateral relations with Russia in all strategic, political and economic fields.

For his part, Lavrov pointed to a political will to develop ties, in a way that achieves the common interests of the two countries and peoples.



Trump Administration Ends Some USAID Contracts Providing Lifesaving Aid across the Middle East

A USAID flag flutters outside, as the USAID building sits closed to employees after a memo was issued advising agency personnel to work remotely, in Washington, DC, US, February 3, 2025. (Reuters)
A USAID flag flutters outside, as the USAID building sits closed to employees after a memo was issued advising agency personnel to work remotely, in Washington, DC, US, February 3, 2025. (Reuters)
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Trump Administration Ends Some USAID Contracts Providing Lifesaving Aid across the Middle East

A USAID flag flutters outside, as the USAID building sits closed to employees after a memo was issued advising agency personnel to work remotely, in Washington, DC, US, February 3, 2025. (Reuters)
A USAID flag flutters outside, as the USAID building sits closed to employees after a memo was issued advising agency personnel to work remotely, in Washington, DC, US, February 3, 2025. (Reuters)

The Trump administration has notified the World Food Program and other partners that it has terminated some of the last remaining lifesaving humanitarian programs across the Middle East, a US official and a UN official told The Associated Press on Monday.

The projects were being canceled “for the convenience of the US Government” at the direction of Jeremy Lewin, a top lieutenant at Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency whom the Trump administration appointed to oversee and finish dismantling the US Agency for International Development, according to letters sent to USAID partners and viewed by the AP.

About 60 letters canceling contracts were sent over the past week, including for major projects with the World Food Program, the world’s largest provider of food aid, a USAID official said. An official with the United Nations in the Middle East said the World Food Program received termination letters for US-funded programs in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

Some of the last remaining US funding for key programs in Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and the southern African nation of Zimbabwe also was affected, including for those providing food, water, medical care and shelter for people displaced by war, the USAID official said.

The UN official said the groups that would be hit hardest include Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon. Also affected are programs supporting vulnerable Lebanese people and providing irrigation systems inside Syria, a country emerging from a brutal civil war and struggling with poverty and hunger.

In Yemen, another war-divided country that is facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, the terminated aid apparently includes food that has already arrived in distribution centers, the UN official said.

Aid officials were just learning of many of the cuts Monday and said they were struggling to understand their scope.

Another of the notices, sent Friday, abruptly pulled US funding for a program with strong support in Congress that had sent young Afghan women overseas for schooling amid Taliban prohibitions on women’s education, said an administrator for that project, which is run by Texas A&M University.

The young women would now face return to Afghanistan, where their lives would be in danger, according to that administrator, who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The Trump administration had pledged to spare those most urgent, lifesaving programs in its cutting of aid and development programs through the State Department and USAID.

The Republican administration already has canceled thousands of USAID contracts as it dismantles USAID, which it accuses of wastefulness and of advancing liberal causes.

The newly terminated contracts were among about 900 surviving programs that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had notified Congress he intended to preserve, the USAID official said.

There was no immediate comment from the State Department.