Sudan’s Hamdok Raises GERD Crisis at UN General Assembly

Sudan’s Premier Abdalla Hamdok during his address to the United Nations General Assembly from the cabinet’s headquarters in Khartoum, on Saturday, September 25, 2021. (EPA)
Sudan’s Premier Abdalla Hamdok during his address to the United Nations General Assembly from the cabinet’s headquarters in Khartoum, on Saturday, September 25, 2021. (EPA)
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Sudan’s Hamdok Raises GERD Crisis at UN General Assembly

Sudan’s Premier Abdalla Hamdok during his address to the United Nations General Assembly from the cabinet’s headquarters in Khartoum, on Saturday, September 25, 2021. (EPA)
Sudan’s Premier Abdalla Hamdok during his address to the United Nations General Assembly from the cabinet’s headquarters in Khartoum, on Saturday, September 25, 2021. (EPA)

Sudan is ready to participate in any peaceful initiative to resolve the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) crisis and bring all parties together to reach an agreement that serves their interests, said Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok before the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday.

The UN Security Council had held two meetings to address the crisis. It met in July after Ethiopia announced that it had started to fill the dam again after talks with Egypt and Sudan had faltered.

Hamdok reiterated his country’s rejection of “all unilateral measures” regarding the dam, stressing the importance of reaching a comprehensive, binding and legal agreement on its filling and operation.

Sudan fears that the GERD will put the operation of its Roseires dam, which is located near the Ethiopian dam, and the lives of millions of Sudanese citizens at “a very high risk” if an agreement regulating its operation and filling is not reached.

“We have suffered during the past weeks from the adverse effects of the first and second unilateral filling, despite the costly preventive measures taken by the Sudanese government,” Hamdok told the Assembly from Khartoum.

Commenting on the transitional process in Sudan, he said that despite the recent progress, the country still needs international support.

He stressed the importance of completing the government’s economic reform plans, which include exempting Sudan from all its debts, obtaining loans and partners fulfilling of their pledges at the Berlin and Paris conferences.

He further called for dropping the procedural restrictions after removing Sudan from the US state sponsors of terrorism (SST) list so that it returns to the international community.

The transitional government continues to implement its policies aimed at achieving democratic transformation and the rule of law. It has also been working to improve the human rights and the economic infrastructure.



Toll in Syria Opposition-army Fighting Rises to 242

Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)
Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)
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Toll in Syria Opposition-army Fighting Rises to 242

Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)
Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)

More than 240 people, mostly combatants, were killed as intense fighting approached Syria's northern Aleppo city after the opposition launched a major offensive on government-held areas this week, a monitor said Friday.
On Wednesday, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied Turkish-backed factions launched an attack on government-held areas in the northwest, triggering the fiercest fighting since 2020, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Observatory, said fighting reached two kilometers (1.2 miles) from the main northern city of Aleppo, where the group’s artillery shelling on student housing killed four civilians, according to state media.
"The combatants' death toll in the ongoing... operation in the Idlib and Aleppo countrysides has risen to 218," since Wednesday, said the British-based monitor with a network of sources inside Syria.
In addition to the fighters, it said 24 civilians were killed.
Syrian ally Russia launched air strikes that killed 19 civilians on Thursday, while another civilian had been killed in Syrian army shelling a day earlier, said the Observatory which on Thursday had reported an overall toll of about 200 dead, including the civilians.