Sudan’s Burhan, Hamdok Meet with Senior Military Commanders

 Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Abdalla Hamdok during their meeting with senior army commanders in Khartoum on Monday, April 26, 2021. (AFP)
Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Abdalla Hamdok during their meeting with senior army commanders in Khartoum on Monday, April 26, 2021. (AFP)
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Sudan’s Burhan, Hamdok Meet with Senior Military Commanders

 Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Abdalla Hamdok during their meeting with senior army commanders in Khartoum on Monday, April 26, 2021. (AFP)
Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Abdalla Hamdok during their meeting with senior army commanders in Khartoum on Monday, April 26, 2021. (AFP)

Head of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok held Monday a meeting with senior army commanders at the General Command headquarters in Khartoum.

The ministers of cabinet affairs, defense, finance, foreign affairs and communications and information technology attended the meeting, which was the first between Hamdok and leaders of various military units in the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).

“This meeting is the beginning of a dialogue that targets developing the military institution in a professional national army all the Sudanese are proud of,” Hamdok noted.

He told a press conference that his visit to the army commanders “came late” but represents an “extension of the partnership between the military and civilian components in this complex transition.”

“The partnership aims at laying the cornerstone for building a firm and stable democratic system.”

The December revolution allowed the Sudanese to implement a national project, the PM said, stressing that one of the most important requirements of the transitional phase is building a unified and professional national army.

Hamdok further viewed the partnership between civilians and the military as an “advanced model” that can set an example for the whole of Africa.



French, Algerian Ties ‘Back to Normal’, France Says after Talks

This handout photograph released by French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) shows France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (L) being received by Algeria's President Abdelmajid Tebboune in Algiers on April 6, 2025. (French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs / AFP)
This handout photograph released by French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) shows France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (L) being received by Algeria's President Abdelmajid Tebboune in Algiers on April 6, 2025. (French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs / AFP)
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French, Algerian Ties ‘Back to Normal’, France Says after Talks

This handout photograph released by French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) shows France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (L) being received by Algeria's President Abdelmajid Tebboune in Algiers on April 6, 2025. (French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs / AFP)
This handout photograph released by French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) shows France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (L) being received by Algeria's President Abdelmajid Tebboune in Algiers on April 6, 2025. (French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs / AFP)

France's foreign minister said on Sunday that ties with Algeria were back to normal after he held 2 1/2 hours of talks with Algeria's president following months of bickering that have hurt Paris' economic and security interests in its former colony.

Ties between Paris and Algiers have been complicated for decades, but took a turn for the worse last July when Macron angered Algeria by recognizing a plan for autonomy for the Western Sahara region under Moroccan sovereignty.

A poor relationship has major security, economic and social repercussions: trade is extensive and some 10% of France's 68 million population has links to Algeria, according to French officials.

"We are reactivating as of today all the mechanisms of cooperation in all sectors. We are going back to normal and to repeat the words of President (Abdelmadjid) Tebboune: 'the curtain is lifted'," Jean-Noel Barrot said in a statement at the presidential palace in Algiers after 2 1/2 hours of talks.

His visit comes after a call between President Emmanuel Macron and his counterpart Tebboune on March 31, during which the two agreed to a broad roadmap to calm tensions.

French officials say Algiers had put obstacles to administrative authorizations and new financing for French firms operating in the country.

Nowhere was that felt more than in wheat imports. Traders say the diplomatic rift led Algerian grains agency OAIC to tacitly exclude French wheat and firms in its import tenders since October. OAIC has said it treats all suppliers fairly, applying technical requirements.

Barrot said he had specifically brought up the difficulties regarding economic exchanges, notably in the agrobusiness, automobile and maritime transport sectors.

"President Tebboune reassured me of his will to give them new impetus," Barrot said.

Beyond business, the relationship has also soured to the point where security cooperation stopped. The detention by Algiers in November of 80-year-old Franco-Algerian author Boualem Sansal also worsened the relationship.

He has since been sentenced to five years in prison. Barrot said he hoped a gesture of "humanity" could be made by Algiers given his age and health.

With Macron's government under pressure to toughen immigration policies, the spat has fed into domestic politics in both countries.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has called for a 1968 pact between the two countries that makes it easier for Algerians to settle in France to be reviewed, after Algiers refused to take back some of its citizens who were ordered to leave France under the "OQTF" (obligation to leave French territory) deportation regime.

Barrot said Retailleau would soon go to Algiers and that the two sides would resume cooperation on judicial issues.

The relationship between the two countries is scarred by the trauma of the 1954-1962 war in which the North African country, which had a large settler population and was treated as an integral part of France under colonial rule, won independence.