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Sudan’s First Vice President: ‘Emergency’ Meant to Curb Smuggling

Sudanese demonstrators chant slogans as they march along the street during anti-government protests in Khartoum, Sudan December 25, 2018. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo
Sudanese demonstrators chant slogans as they march along the street during anti-government protests in Khartoum, Sudan December 25, 2018. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo
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Sudan’s First Vice President: ‘Emergency’ Meant to Curb Smuggling

Sudanese demonstrators chant slogans as they march along the street during anti-government protests in Khartoum, Sudan December 25, 2018. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo
Sudanese demonstrators chant slogans as they march along the street during anti-government protests in Khartoum, Sudan December 25, 2018. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo

Sudan's newly appointed First Vice President Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Auf said, after his meeting with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Wednesday, that the state of emergency declared across the country is aimed at stopping smuggling activities "destroying" the economy, not targeting the ongoing anti-government demonstrations.

Emergency doesn’t mean to ‘suppress protests’, he stressed, but is a response for calls to impose security and safety in the country.

Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) revealed in a statement that the kid Muayed Yasir Juma, 5, was run over by a vehicle that belongs to the ‘regime militias’. The police arrested the criminals and handed them out to be trialed according to the emergency law.

SPA denounced the incident and listed it under the 'crimes committed by the government.'

Sudanese Prime Minister Mohamed Tahir Ayala said, following his meeting with Bashir on Wednesday, that they agreed on a number of procedures and decisions that will be taken in the coming days. These procedures are related to economic topics that include removing gaps that weakened the economy in the country.

Ayala vowed to revise all imposed fees and taxes on goods and to guarantee the activation of procedures to ease access to bread, medicine, fuel, and funding.

The Sudanese ‘uprising’ has entered the second week of its 3rd month, after protests first erupted on Dec. 19. The protests were faced with excessive violence, killing 31 citizens according to official numbers, and more than 50 as confirmed by the opposition and the Amnesty International.

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Security Council Urges ‘Realistic’ Solution to Sahara Conflict

A view of Council members voting in favor of the resolution (UN)
A view of Council members voting in favor of the resolution (UN)
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Security Council Urges ‘Realistic’ Solution to Sahara Conflict

A view of Council members voting in favor of the resolution (UN)
A view of Council members voting in favor of the resolution (UN)

The UN Security Council on Thursday called for a “realistic” political solution in the contested territory of Western Sahara as it passed a resolution extending the UN mission there for another year.
The US-sponsored resolution renewed the mandate of MINURSO, also known as the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, until October 31, 2025, AFP reported.
The resolution passed with support from 12 of the Security Council's 15 member states; Algeria -- which submitted two rejected amendments -- refused to vote in protest, while Russia and Mozambique abstained.
In a statement on the resolution, the Security Council emphasized “the importance of aligning the strategic focus of MINURSO and orienting resources of the United Nations to this end” for the former Spanish colony.
Considered a “non-autonomous territory” by the United Nations, Western Sahara covers approximately 266,000 square kilometers north of Mauritania.
The territory, which contains valuable mineral deposits and long stretches of coastline fisheries, is largely controlled by Morocco.
For decades, it has constituted a dispute between Rabat and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front.
Morocco had proposed an autonomy plan that would provide for a degree of self-government for Western Sahara under its sovereignty. In return, the Polisario has called for a referendum on self-determination, under the auspices of the United Nations, as stipulated in the 1991 ceasefire agreement.
Last Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron promised in Rabat his country’s “diplomatic” commitment to push the Moroccan solution on Western Sahara at the UN as well as within the European Union.
“We will act by engaging diplomatically to convince that the Moroccan solution is the only one within the European Union, at the United Nations,” he said in front of the French community in Morocco.
Earlier last month, the UN envoy for Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura has proposed dividing the territory between Morocco and the Polisario Front in order to resolve the decades-old conflict. However, his plans were swiftly rejected by the Polisario that said the plan fails to “enshrine” the Sahrawi people's right to self determination.
Sidi Omar, the Polisario representative to the UN, said in a post on X that the movement strongly affirms its total and categorical rejection of any proposals or initiatives, which do not fully enshrine and ensure the inalienable, non-negotiable and imprescriptible right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence or do not respect the territorial integrity of Western Sahara.