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
TT

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.”



With Nowhere Else to Hide, Gazans Shelter in Former Prison

24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
TT

With Nowhere Else to Hide, Gazans Shelter in Former Prison

24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)

After weeks of Israeli bombardment left them with nowhere else to go, hundreds of Palestinians have ended up in a former Gaza prison built to hold murderers and thieves.

Yasmeen al-Dardasi said she and her family passed wounded people they were unable to help as they evacuated from a district in the southern city of Khan Younis towards its Central Correction and Rehabilitation Facility.

They spent a day under a tree before moving on to the former prison, where they now live in a prayer room. It offers protection from the blistering sun, but not much else.

Dardasi's husband has a damaged kidney and just one lung, but no mattress or blanket.

"We are not settled here either," said Dardasi, who like many Palestinians fears she will be uprooted once again.

Israel has said it goes out of its way to protect civilians in its war with the Palestinian group Hamas, which runs Gaza and led the attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that sparked the latest conflict.

Palestinians, many of whom have been displaced several times, say nowhere is free of Israeli bombardment, which has reduced much of Gaza to rubble.

An Israeli air strike killed at least 90 Palestinians in a designated humanitarian zone in the Al-Mawasi area on July 13, the territory's health ministry said, in an attack that Israel said targeted Hamas' elusive military chief Mohammed Deif.

On Thursday, Gaza's health ministry said Israeli military strikes on areas in eastern Khan Younis had killed 14 people.

Entire neighborhoods have been flattened in one of the most densely populated places in the world, where poverty and unemployment have long been widespread.

According to the United Nations, nine in ten people across Gaza are now internally displaced.

Israeli soldiers told Saria Abu Mustafa and her family that they should flee for safety as tanks were on their way, she said. The family had no time to change so they left in their prayer clothes.

After sleeping outside on sandy ground, they too found refuge in the prison, among piles of rubble and gaping holes in buildings from the battles which were fought there. Inmates had been released long before Israel attacked.

"We didn't take anything with us. We came here on foot, with children walking with us," she said, adding that many of the women had five or six children with them and that water was hard to find.

She held her niece, who was born during the conflict, which has killed her father and brothers.

When Hamas-led gunmen burst into southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7 they killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 people hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in the air and ground offensive Israel launched in response, Palestinian health officials say.

Hana Al-Sayed Abu Mustafa arrived at the prison after being displaced six times.

If Egyptian, US and Qatari mediators fail to secure a ceasefire they have long said is close, she and other Palestinians may be on the move once again. "Where should we go? All the places that we go to are dangerous," she said.