Archive for South Sudan

Minister: Dispute with Nile Basin countries does not prevent cooperation

by admin
October 2nd, 2012

Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohamed Bahaa Eddin said on Tuesday that the dispute over the Entebbe agreement between the Nile Basin countries does not prevent cooperation between them.

The dispute between the upstream and downstream states can be resolved in the future through dialogue, he added.

Bahaa Eddin said at a press conference Tuesday that “preparations for the meeting of the Nile Basin countries to be held in Rwanda by the end of this month have been discussed, in addition to economic cooperation with the Nile Basin countries.”

The minister stressed that the Tripartite Commission — made up of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia — would meet on 8 October in Addis Ababa to discuss the effects of the Renaissance Dam in Ethiopia on both Egypt and Sudan. They will visit the dam site along with experts undertaking studies on the effects of building the dam on Egypt and Sudan.

President Mohamed Morsy visited Addis Ababa as the head of Egypt’s delegation at the African Summit in July.

Prime Minister Hesham Qandil will visit South Sudan next week to discuss joint cooperation, Bahaa Eddin said.

“There is a development project [being prepared] for the Nile Basin countries that costs about US$100 million,” Bahaa Eddin said. “Mega projects between Egypt and the Nile Basin countries will have international funding,” he added, noting that Qandil is discussing extending the route between Cairo and Khartoum to reach Addis Ababa, in order to increase commercial exchange.

Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya signed the Entebbe agreement in April 2010, which stipulated the redistribution of Nile water. Egypt and Sudan had both boycotted the talks, and Egypt declared the agreement to be non-binding. Burundi joined in March 2011, making it more likely for the agreement to go into effect.

Egypt has said on a number of occasions that it will not accept an agreement about water redistribution that does not guarantee its historical rights. According to an agreement signed with Sudan in 1959, Egypt's share of Nile water is estimated at 51 billion square meters annually, while Sudan's share is estimated at 18 billion square meters.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Sudan and South Sudan reach deal on oil

by admin
August 5th, 2012

Sudan and South Sudan have reached an agreement to end a drawn-out oil dispute that led to dire economic consequences and prompted fears of war.
The chief mediator in peace talks, former South African prime minister Thabo Mbeki, announced the breakthrough at a meeting of the African Union Peace and Security Council in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Saturday.
The council had met to dis

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South Sudan accuses Sudan of bombing its territory

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July 21st, 2012

KHARTOUM/JUBA  — South Sudan on Saturday accused Sudan of launching an aerial bombardment on its side of their disputed border, but the Sudanese army denied the charge.

The two countries came close to all-out war in April following border clashes, the worst violence since South Sudan seceded and declared its independence from Khartoum a year ago under a 2005 peace agreement that ended decades of civil war.

South Sudanese military spokesman Philip Aguer said Sudanese war planes had bombed the area of Rumaker in the Northern Bahr al-Ghazal border state on Friday morning.

"Two people were slightly injured," he said. "The bombing happened at 3:25 am when people were still sleeping."

Sudan's army spokesman al-Sawarmi Khalid denied that its air force had carried out any such attack.

Claims of attacks are hard to verify due to a lack of access to the remote border zone although Reuters reporters have witnessed several bombings on southern territory.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir met his southern counterpart Salva Kiir last week on the sidelines of a summit of the African Union, their first meeting since border fighting worsened in April.

The neighbors face the threat of sanctions from the UN Security Council unless they peacefully resolve border, oil and other security disputes by a deadline of 2 August.

The Security Council has already expressed concern over delays in the negotiating process. .

The two countries accuse each other of supporting rebels on their respective territory and argue over how much landlocked South Sudan should pay to export oil through a Red Sea port in the north.

Juba shut down in January its entire oil output of 350,000 barrels per day to stop Khartoum taking some oil for what the latter calls unpaid export fees. Oil is the lifeline of both economies.

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40 undocumented migrants arrested in Sinai

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July 20th, 2012

Egyptian security forces prevented 40 undocumented Eritrean migrants from entering Israel.

The migrants were arrested and referred to investigation.

African migrants, particularly from Eritrea, Ethiopia and South Sudan, often try to enter Israel through the Sinai border with the help of African and Bedouin smugglers.

Thousands of Eritreans each year flee the country, with many heading for Israel. A total of 16,816 Africans entered Israel illegally from Egypt in 2011, according to Israeli government data.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
 

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Sudan’s Bashir calls protesters ‘agitators’

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June 25th, 2012

Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Sunday dismissed anti-government protests over a severe economic crisis as the work of "a few agitators."

More than a week of protests sparked by austerity measures have spread across the capital Khartoum and other cities, expanding beyond the core of student activists who hoped to turn public discontent into an "Arab Spring" movement.

But in a speech late on Sunday, Bashir dismissed the demonstrations.

"They said the economic measures were a chance for the Arab Spring, but we've already had the Arab Spring a number of times," he said. "When the Sudanese people revolt, they all come out. The people who are burning tires are a few agitators."

Popular uprisings have overthrown military rulers in Sudan twice since the country gained independence from Britain in 1956 — once in 1964 and again in 1985.

Police vowed late on Saturday to quell the latest unrest "forcefully and immediately."

While Khartoum appeared to be quieter on Sunday, a protest of about 150 people broke out in Obeid, capital of North Kordofan state, witnesses said. Police dispersed the demonstration with teargas, they added.

Activists said police also fired tear gas to disperse student demonstrators at the University of Khartoum, a major hub of the protests, but it was not immediately possible to verify that independently.

A Reuters reporter saw a heavy police presence in the area and rocks strewn on a street near the campus. The police were not immediately available to comment.

The impetus for the demonstrations was the government's announcement last week of spending cuts to tackle an economic crisis worsened by the secession of oil-producing South Sudan a year ago. The measures included a cut in fuel subsidies.

Activists and opposition groups have been trying to use discontent over rising food prices and other economic woes to build a broader movement to end Bashir's 23-year rule.

But although spread across a wide variety of neighborhoods, the demonstrations have so far lasted for only short periods and rarely exceeded more than a few hundred people at any one time.

The unrest in Khartoum has been an added pressure for a government already grappling with armed insurgencies in its western Darfur region and in two southern states bordering South Sudan.

An insurgent alliance known as the Sudanese Revolutionary Front issued a statement on Sunday praising the demonstrations and saying the rebels were ready to declare a "strategic cease-fire" if Bashir were to be overthrown.

The alliance was formed last year and encompasses Sudan's main rebel groups — three factions of Darfur rebels plus other insurgents in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states bordering South Sudan.

Sudan has faced high food inflation and a weakening currency since South Sudan seceded, taking with it three-quarters of the country's crude production — previously the main source of state revenues and foreign currency.

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Anti-regime protests sweep Sudan’s capital

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June 21st, 2012

Riot police fired tear gas and civilians armed with machetes and swords attacked protesters during five days of demonstrations sweeping Khartoum demanding ouster of Sudan's autocratic ruler, a Sudanese opposition leader said Thursday.

Saata Ahmed al-Haj, head of the opposition Sudanese Commission for Defense of Freedoms and Rights, said that hundreds of protesters have been detained over the past five days. He said they were later released but were badly mistreated.

Haj said security forces shaved off the protesters' hair, stripped them naked, flogged them and then left them outside in the scorching sun for hours.

"I am under house arrest along with several opposition members, and security forces are encircling the place," he told The Associated Press over the phone. "Our 'offense' is we are searching for freedom, and this is a crime in Sudan," he said.

"This is the outcome of political, economic and military suffocation felt by people here," Haj said.

A government austerity plan slashing subsidies and doubling price of fuel and food set off the protests. President Omar al-Bashir has said the measures are necessary to pay for his country's conflict with South Sudan and to replace Sudan's oil revenues. He said Sudan no longer exports oil.

The demonstrations started on Saturday night at the University of Khartoum. Students protesting transportation fare hikes took to the streets outside the downtown campus, where security forces fired tear gas and rounded up dozens of them.

Since then, Khartoum has been the scene of daily protests, spilling out to different areas of the capital.

Echoing calls heard in Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria, protesters chanted, "The people demand to bring down the regime."

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Protests erupt as Sudan’s Bashir unveils austerity plan

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June 19th, 2012

Sudan's police used tear gas and batons to break up protests in Khartoum on Monday, witnesses said, after President Omar al-Bashir unveiled tough austerity measures to plug a budget deficit.

Sudan has avoided an "Arab spring" but anger is rising over spiraling food prices among a population strained by years of conflict, poverty and US trade sanctions.

The Arab-African country has been struggling with economic crisis after losing three-quarters of its oil production, the lifeblood of the economy, when South Sudan seceded a year ago.

Protests erupted after news of Bashir's plans to cut the number of civil servants, reduce fuel subsidies and raise taxes on consumer goods, banks and imports.

About 250 students staged an anti-government protest in the heart of the capital for a second day, shouting "rise up, rise up," witnesses said. They also shouted slogans protesting against rocketing food prices.

Riot police tear gassed and beat students hurling rocks at officers on a large street in front of the main campus of the University of Khartoum, witnesses said.

In the suburb Omdurman at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile, policemen beat some 300 student protesters with batons to end the demonstration.

In northern Khartoum, around 100 people set tires on fire to block a large street, shouting "Khartoum, rise up," a witness said, and police officers used tear gas to break up the protest. Activists also reported a student protest in Khartoum but no details were immediately available.

Police said there had been "limited" clashes with students during which several people were detained. "They tried to spark riots and damage citizens' property," a police statement said.

Austerity measures

Bashir told lawmakers in parliament: "We will overhaul the government … cut down the number of ministries … and shrink regional governments by between 45 and 50 percent."

Advisory jobs and allowances for senior officials would be cut altogether, he said.

Fuel subsidies, which diplomats say cost Sudan at least US$1 billion a year, would be gradually phased out, he said, while value added tax and taxes on imports and banking profits would be increased. Taxes on telecoms firms were raised in December.

Bashir, who seized power in a 1989 coup, said the government would soften the blow of higher fuel prices by exempting basic foods such as wheat, flour and sugar from the new import tax.

He gave no details but said Finance Minister Ali Mahmoud, who put the finance deficit at $2.4 billion in May, would brief parliament on Wednesday.

Sudan effectively devalued its currency in May — pushing inflation up to 30 percent — to try to attract more remittances from expatriate Sudanese and to boost gold and farm exports after the International Monetary Fund urged it to take emergency measures to overcome the "daunting" challenges it faces.

Khartoum and other university cities have seen small protests which have so far only attracted students. Opposition politicians said last week they planned to stage protests against removing fuel subsidies.

Khartoum had hoped to fix its deficit with the help of export fees from landlocked South Sudan which needs to pump its oil through northern pipelines and Port Sudan on the Red Sea.

But the new nation in January shut down its entire oil output of 350,000 barrels a day to stop Sudan from seizing oil for what the latter called unpaid export fees. Both sides have been unable to agree on a rate.

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Fugitive rebel warlord Kony ‘in Sudan-South Sudan border areas’

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April 30th, 2012

Fugitive rebel warlord Joseph Kony is operating in volatile border areas between Sudan and South Sudan, as well as the Central African Republic, Uganda's army chief said Monday.

Kony, originally from Uganda, is based in remote regions between CAR, South Sudan's Western Bahr el-Ghazal state and Sudan's South Darfur state, said Aronda Nyakairima, Uganda's chief of defense forces.

"The last intelligence that they got from someone who surrendered indicated that Kony was somewhere in western Bahr-el-Ghazal at a point where the triangular borders meet," Nyakairima said.

Uganda is leading an African Union force in the hunt for the head of the Lord's Resistance Army rebels, a force notorious for a grim campaign of rape, mutilation and murder.

The AU force — supported by US special forces — is mandated to hunt Kony across Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and South Sudan, but does not have permission to cross into Sudan's territory.

Nyakairima said that Khartoum had armed the LRA and given the brutal rebel group sanctuary prior to 2002, a move widely seen as retaliation for Uganda's backing of southern rebels battling the Sudanese government.

However, Nyakairima said that although new uniforms of the Sudanese Armed Forces had been discovered with the rebels, there was no concrete proof Khartoum was still supporting or arming the LRA.

"We know that area has Khartoum forces deployed in Southern Darfur. … We have not come across a rifle or a bomb, but certainly we came across brand new uniforms," Nyakairima said.

However, the uniforms could have been stolen or taken from dead soldiers, Nyakairima added.

The border between Sudan and South Sudan is un-demarcated, a remote area where several armed groups are believed to operate, including both Sudanese Darfur rebels fighting the government and pro-Khartoum militia forces.

Kony, wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges, drew world attention last month after an Internet film by US-based advocacy group Invisible Children calling for him to be caught was watched by tens of millions of people.

Sudan on Sunday declared a state of emergency along its border with South Sudan after month-long border clashes.

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Sudanese prisoners arrive in Cairo on their way to Khartoum

by admin
April 25th, 2012

Assistant Foreign Minister for Sudanese Affairs Mohamed Awad said the mediation efforts made by Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr over the past few days have succeeded in releasing the 13 Sudanese prisoners who were captured by South Sudanese forces in the fighting that erupted in the Heglig region between the two sides.

Amr had asked the president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, during his visit to Juba on 16 April to release the prisoners as a goodwill gesture, which Kiir immediately agreed to. The visit also managed to defuse the crisis and pave the way for peaceful negotiations between the two sides.

Awad added that the prisoners arrived in Cairo on Wednesday to fly to Khartoum in the next few hours.

Amr also received a call from his French counterpart, Alain Juppe, discussing the latest developments in the Sudanese conflict.

Amr briefed Juppe on his contacts on Tuesday in Addis Ababa to resolve the crisis.

Edited translation from MENA

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Efforts to free Sudanese prisoners successful, Foreign Ministry says

by admin
April 25th, 2012

Egypt is behind mediation efforts that have secured the release of Sudanese prisoners detained by South Sudan during the recent fighting in the disputed Heglig oil field region, officials announced Wednesday.

The fighting broke out between Sudan and South Sudan, which announced its independence in July 2011, after the South seized the border-located Heglig oil field earlier this month. The border area between the two former civil war foes has yet to be clearly demarcated.

In mid-April, the South Sudan government published 14 pictures of Sudanese army soldiers it said had been captured in the area occupied by its troops.

In a statement, Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Amr Roshdy said South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit had responded to Egyptian mediation efforts, which included a visit from Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr to Juba on 17 April to calm the situation.

The visit followed a phone call between Mayardit and Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of Egypt’s ruling military council, during which the South Sudanese president agreed to free the Sudanese prisoners and hand them over to Egypt in preparation for their return to Khartoum.

Roshdy said the Foreign Ministry coordinated through the Egyptian embassies in Juba and Khartoum with the International Committee of the Red Cross to transfer the Sudanese prisoners to Cairo Wednesday.

He said they would be transported to Khartoum Wednesday evening.

Amr thanked the South Sudanese government for cooperating in the mediation efforts. He said Egypt will continue its efforts with the two parties to ensure their return to the negotiating table to resolve outstanding issues, according to the statement.

Sudanese Ambassador to Cairo Kamal Hassan Ali welcomed the success of Egypt’s mediation efforts and the release of the Sudanese detainees, saying Khartoum refuses to negotiate again with its southern neighbor.

“We are convinced that South Sudan does not have the will to achieve peace, but its forces continue to attack the border areas with the North, and therefore, there will be no returning to the negotiations until the security issues are resolved and the Southern Sudanese government stops supporting rebel movements,” Ali told Al-Masry Al-Youm.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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