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.



Berlin Calls on Israel to Boost Aid Access to ‘Desperate’ North Gaza

Palestinian children walk among garbage at a landfill as they collect plastic, amid a shortage of cooking gas and fuel, at the Khan Younis refugee camp, in the southern Gaza Strip, 04 November 2024. (EPA)
Palestinian children walk among garbage at a landfill as they collect plastic, amid a shortage of cooking gas and fuel, at the Khan Younis refugee camp, in the southern Gaza Strip, 04 November 2024. (EPA)
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Berlin Calls on Israel to Boost Aid Access to ‘Desperate’ North Gaza

Palestinian children walk among garbage at a landfill as they collect plastic, amid a shortage of cooking gas and fuel, at the Khan Younis refugee camp, in the southern Gaza Strip, 04 November 2024. (EPA)
Palestinian children walk among garbage at a landfill as they collect plastic, amid a shortage of cooking gas and fuel, at the Khan Younis refugee camp, in the southern Gaza Strip, 04 November 2024. (EPA)

Germany calls on Israel to let more humanitarian aid into north Gaza, where a lack of supplies has led to a "desperate" and "unbearable" situation, a spokesperson for the German foreign ministry said on Monday.

"We call on the Israeli government urgently to meet its responsibilities under international law," the spokesperson told a regular news conference in Berlin.

"Israel has the right to self-defense against Hamas within the framework of humanitarian international law," he added.

The spokesperson was responding to a question about an ultimatum set by Washington for Israel to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza this month or face potential restrictions on US military aid.