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.”



Austin Tice's Mother in Damascus, Hopes to Find Son

Debra Tice, mother of journalist Austin Tice who disappeared while reporting in Syria in 2012, speaks after an interview with Reuters in Damascus, Syria January 18, 2025. REUTERS/Yamam Al Shaar 
Debra Tice, mother of journalist Austin Tice who disappeared while reporting in Syria in 2012, speaks after an interview with Reuters in Damascus, Syria January 18, 2025. REUTERS/Yamam Al Shaar 
TT

Austin Tice's Mother in Damascus, Hopes to Find Son

Debra Tice, mother of journalist Austin Tice who disappeared while reporting in Syria in 2012, speaks after an interview with Reuters in Damascus, Syria January 18, 2025. REUTERS/Yamam Al Shaar 
Debra Tice, mother of journalist Austin Tice who disappeared while reporting in Syria in 2012, speaks after an interview with Reuters in Damascus, Syria January 18, 2025. REUTERS/Yamam Al Shaar 

The mother of American journalist Austin Tice, who was taken captive during a reporting trip to Syria in August 2012, arrived in Damascus on Saturday to step up the search for her son and said she hopes she can take him home with her, according to Reuters.

Tice, who worked as a freelance reporter for the Washington Post and McClatchy, was one of the first US journalists to make it into Syria after the outbreak of the civil war.

His mother, Debra Tice, drove into the Syrian capital from Lebanon with Nizar Zakka, the head of Hostage Aid Worldwide, an organization which is searching for Austin and believes he is still in Syria.

“It'd be lovely to put my arms around Austin while I'm here. It'd be the best,” Debra Tice told Reuters in the Syrian capital, which she last visited in 2015 to meet with Syrian authorities about her son, before they stopped granting her visas.

The overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's regime in December by the Syrian opposition has allowed her to visit again from her home in Texas.

“I feel very strongly that Austin's here, and I think he knows I'm here... I'm here,” she said.

Debra Tice and Zakka are hoping to meet with Syria's new authorities, including the head of its new administration Ahmed al-Sharaa, to push for information about Austin.

They are also optimistic that US President-elect Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated on Monday, will take up the cause.

Her son, now 43, was taken captive in August 2012, while travelling through the Damascus suburb of Daraya.

Reuters was first to report in December that in 2013 Tice, a former US Marine, managed to slip out of his cell and was seen moving between houses in the streets of Damascus' upscale Mazzeh neighborhood.

He was recaptured soon after his escape, likely by forces who answered directly to Assad, current and former US officials said.

Debra Tice came to Syria in 2012 and 2015 to meet with Syrian authorities, who never confirmed that Tice was in their custody, both she and Zakka said.

She criticized outgoing US President Joe Biden's administration, saying they did not negotiate hard enough for her son's release, even in recent months.

“We certainly felt like President Biden was very well positioned to do everything possible to bring Austin home, right? I mean, this was the end of his career,” she said. “This would be a wonderful thing for him to do. So we had an expectation. He pardoned his own son, right? So, where's my son?”

Debra Tice said her “mind was just spinning” as she drove across the Lebanese border into Syria and teared up as she spoke about the tens of thousands whose loved ones were held in Assad's notorious prison system and whose fate remains unknown.

“I have a lot in common with a lot of Syrian mothers and families, and just thinking about how this is affecting them - do they have the same hope that I do, that they're going to open a door, that they're going to see their loved one?”