Sudan PM Receives Forces of Freedom and Change’s List of Govt Candidates

Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. (Reuters)
Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. (Reuters)
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Sudan PM Receives Forces of Freedom and Change’s List of Govt Candidates

Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. (Reuters)
Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. (Reuters)

Representatives of Sudan’s Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) handed Sunday Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok its list of candidates for the new cabinet.

Meanwhile, differences are still delaying the submission of candidates of the National Umma Party and other parties to the peace process in the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) to the Council of Transition Partners (CTP).

The National Umma Party, which was given the portfolios of foreign affairs, agriculture, oil and religious affairs, has been witnessing sharp internal differences, preventing it from naming its candidates, an informed source told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The source pointed out that another reason for the delay is that a prominent party leader has nominated himself as member in the Transitional Sovereign Council, refusing to withdraw his decision.

The CTP had announced it will form the cabinet on Feb. 4 and complete the transitional sovereign council.

It held on Sunday a meeting to discuss the new government’s agenda based on a draft submitted by the FFC.

Sources revealed that the FFC has re-nominated Justice Minister Nasredeen Abdulbari and Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas to their posts.

Among the most prominent candidates in the new cabinet are the Umma’s Mariam Sadiq al-Mahdi for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ibrahim al-Sheikh for the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and Hamza Baloul for the Ministry of Culture and Information.

One of the SRF’s alliance members expressed its rejection of the current way the government was being formed, suggesting that early elections be held.

Proceeding with the partisan power-sharing approach in forming the government will affect its performance, leader in the SRF Eltom Hajo told a press conference.

The formation of the cabinet is in line with the Juba Peace Agreement that was signed between the government and several armed groups affiliated with the SRF in October.

Under the agreement, armed movements will be granted 25 percent representation in the cabinet, the defense and interior portfolios will be headed by military figures, 17 seats were allotted to the FFC, and three seats to the Transitional Sovereign Council. The Transitional Legislative Council was granted 75 percent representation.

The new cabinet is therefore expected to include 26 ministries instead of 20, including seven portfolios to the SRF, which is divided into two alliances.



Gaza Population Down by 6% Since Start of War, Says Palestinian Statistics Bureau

 The body of a victim of an Israeli army strike on a house in the Bureij refugee camp is carried for the funeral at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza Strip town of Deir al-Balah Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP)
The body of a victim of an Israeli army strike on a house in the Bureij refugee camp is carried for the funeral at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza Strip town of Deir al-Balah Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP)
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Gaza Population Down by 6% Since Start of War, Says Palestinian Statistics Bureau

 The body of a victim of an Israeli army strike on a house in the Bureij refugee camp is carried for the funeral at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza Strip town of Deir al-Balah Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP)
The body of a victim of an Israeli army strike on a house in the Bureij refugee camp is carried for the funeral at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza Strip town of Deir al-Balah Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP)

The population of Gaza has fallen 6% since the war with Israel began nearly 15 months ago as about 100,000 Palestinians left the enclave while more than 55,000 are presumed dead, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).

Around 45,500 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, have been killed since the war began but another 11,000 are missing, the bureau said, citing numbers from the Palestinian Health Ministry.

As such, the population of Gaza has declined by about 160,000 during the course of the war to 2.1 million, with more than a million or 47% of the total children under the age of 18, the PCBS said.

It added that Israel has "raged a brutal aggression against Gaza targeting all kinds of life there; humans, buildings and vital infrastructure... entire families were erased from the civil register. There are catastrophic human and material losses."

Israel's foreign ministry said the PCBS data was "fabricated, inflated, and manipulated in order to vilify Israel".

Israel has faced accusations of genocide in Gaza because of the scale of death and destruction.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations' highest legal body, ruled last January that Israel must prevent acts of genocide against Palestinians, while Pope Francis has suggested the global community should study whether Israel's Gaza campaign constitutes genocide.

Israel has repeatedly rejected accusations of genocide, saying it abides by international law and has a right to defend itself after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023 killed 1,200 Israelis and precipitated the current war.

The PCBS said some 22% of Gaza's population currently faces catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity, according to the criteria of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a global monitor.

Included in that 22% are some 3,500 children at risk of death due to malnutrition and lack of food, the bureau said.