Sudan’s People Await Cabinet Formation

Protests in Khartoum call for civilian rule. AFP file photo
Protests in Khartoum call for civilian rule. AFP file photo
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Sudan’s People Await Cabinet Formation

Protests in Khartoum call for civilian rule. AFP file photo
Protests in Khartoum call for civilian rule. AFP file photo

The Sudanese are eagerly awaiting the first of April, for the signing of the final political agreement between civilians and the military, with international and regional support.

However, the political process faces resistance from the Islamist supporters of the former regime and their followers, who “threatened to bring down the prospective government peacefully or by force.”

The Communist Party and other leftist parties describe the upcoming civilian government as “a Western creation and an attempt to circumvent the Sudanese revolution.”

On the other hand, the forces that signed the “framework agreement” on Dec. 5 insist on proceeding to complete the requirements for signing the final agreement at the beginning of April.

The spokesman for the political process, Khaled Omar Youssef, announced that the committee drafting the final agreement was working to complete its mission within the specified deadline.

A security and military reform workshop, which was scheduled to be held last Thursday, was postponed to Sunday, according to a spokesman for the Freedom and Change coalition. The workshop will discuss reforming the security and military apparatus, and integrating the armies of the armed movements into a unified army, including the Rapid Support Forces.

Meanwhile, the Justice and Equality Movement renewed its rejection of the political process, and considered it a commitment to “exclusion and tutelage in its worst forms,” according to its statement.

The Justice and Equality and Sudan Liberation movements, which are signatories to the Juba Peace Agreement, reject the framework agreement, and stipulate that it be signed with the rest of their partners in the Democratic Bloc coalition, an alliance that the Freedom and Change forces accuse of supporting the coup.

The Sudan Liberation Movement vowed to hold demonstrations rejecting the signing of the final agreement and the announcement of the government, and threatened to arrange mass rallies across the country to overthrow any government that is far from what it called “the will of the Sudanese people.”



IOM: Over 55,000 Displaced Sudanese Return to Southeastern State

File photo of Sudanese refugees (AFP)
File photo of Sudanese refugees (AFP)
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IOM: Over 55,000 Displaced Sudanese Return to Southeastern State

File photo of Sudanese refugees (AFP)
File photo of Sudanese refugees (AFP)

Over 55,000 internally displaced Sudanese have returned to areas across the southeastern state of Sennar, more than a month after the army recaptured the state capital, the UN migration agency said Saturday.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said its field teams "monitored the return of an estimated 55,466 displaced persons to locations across Sennar state" between December 18 and January 10.

Across the entire country, however, the United Nations says 21 months of war have created the world's worst internal displacement crisis, uprooting more than 12 million people, AFP reported.

Famine has been declared in parts of the country, but the risk is spreading for millions more people, including to areas north of Sennar, a UN-backed assessment said last month.

In November, the Sudanese army, battling the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2023, said it had regained control of Sinja, the Sennar state capital and a key link between army-controlled areas of central and eastern Sudan.

The RSF had controlled Sinja since late June when its attack on Sennar state forced nearly 726,000 people -- many displaced from other states -- to flee, according to the United Nations.

The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands.

On Thursday, the United States Treasury Department sanctioned army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, accusing the army of attacking schools, markets and hospitals, as well as using food deprivation as a weapon of war.

The move came just over a week after Washington also sanctioned RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, accusing his group of committing genocide.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Daglo had been designated for "gross violations of human rights" in Sudan's western Darfur region, "namely the mass rape of civilians by RSF soldiers under his control."