Sudan’s New PM to Visit Juba

FILE PHOTO: Sudan's new Prime Minister in the transitional government Abdalla Hamdok, speaks during a Reuters interview in Khartoum, Sudan August 24, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Sudan's new Prime Minister in the transitional government Abdalla Hamdok, speaks during a Reuters interview in Khartoum, Sudan August 24, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo
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Sudan’s New PM to Visit Juba

FILE PHOTO: Sudan's new Prime Minister in the transitional government Abdalla Hamdok, speaks during a Reuters interview in Khartoum, Sudan August 24, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Sudan's new Prime Minister in the transitional government Abdalla Hamdok, speaks during a Reuters interview in Khartoum, Sudan August 24, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo

Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok chaired on Tuesday the first cabinet session since coming into office last month, listing ten priorities in the 200 days of the transition into civilian rule.

Information Minister Faisal Mohamed Saleh confirmed that the priorities included stopping war and building a just and comprehensive peace, tackling the economic crisis, repealing laws restricting freedoms, ensuring the independence of the judiciary, achieving transitional justice, forming an independent commission to investigate crimes, combating corruption, strengthening the role of women and youth, restructuring the state, and building balanced foreign relations.

“It was agreed to establish a balanced foreign policy based on the independence of Sudan and taking into account the common interests,” Saleh told reporters after the cabinet meeting.

“There was also serious discussion on the issue of ensuring the promotion of women's rights, taking measures to ensure their effective participation, and reforming of state apparatuses,” he added.

As for the African state’s centralization, Saleh said that ties between regional authorities and the central administration will also be revised alongside other proposed governance structures.

Saleh revealed that Hamdok will travel to Juba, South Sudan’s capital, this week, his first official overseas trip since becoming premier after the ouster of president Omar al-Bashir.

South Sudan had split from the north in 2011. The two countries have yet to resolve some pending border disputes and trade concerns after the bulk of oil earnings of erstwhile Sudan went to South Sudan following the split.

“He (Hamdok) will be accompanied by a delegation including the ministers of interior, foreign affairs, energy and mining, and commerce and industry,” Saleh told reporters, adding that the two-day visit is to emphasize the close relations between Sudan and South Sudan.

Sudan's transitional government has made peacemaking with rebels in Juba and elsewhere one of its main priorities as it is a key condition for the country's removal from the US sponsors of terrorism list.



Gaza Civil Defense Says Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 29

A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
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Gaza Civil Defense Says Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 29

A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer

Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli airstrikes on Sunday killed at least 29 Palestinians, including six children near a water distribution point.

The attacks came with apparent deadlock in a week of indirect talks in Qatar between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas for a ceasefire in the territory.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that Gaza City was hit by several strikes overnight and in the early morning, killing eight, "including women and children" and wounding others.

An Israeli airstrike hit a family home near the Nuseirat refugee camp, south of Gaza City, resulting in "10 martyrs and several injured", Bassal said.

In central Gaza, six children were among eight people killed when a drone "hit a potable water distribution point in an area for displaced people" in the Nuseirat camp, he added.

Several other people were wounded, he said.

In the territory's south, three people were killed when Israeli jets hit a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in the coastal Al-Mawasi area, according to the civil defense spokesman.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has recently intensified its operations across Gaza, more than 21 months into the war triggered by Hamas's October 2023 attack.

On Saturday, the military said fighter jets had hit more than 35 "Hamas terror targets" around Beit Hanun in northern Gaza.

The vast majority of Gaza's population of more than two million people have been displaced at least once during the war, which has created dire humanitarian conditions in the territory.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency and other parties.