March 2, 2021 (GADAREF) - The Sudanese troops hunting Ethiopian militiamen in the border strip of Fashaga inch closer to their largest stronghold in the Berkht area inside the Sudanese border, military sources said on Tuesday. The Sudanese government forces on Monday have launched an attack on the Ethiopian army-backed militiamen who recently penetrated deep inside Sudan abducting some farmers and looting their harvest in the Gadaref State. "Fierce clashes have been taking place between (...) - News / Ethiopia, FRONT_PAGE_DISPLAY

March 2, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - Sudanese and Egyptian armies moved a step further to strengthen their relationship by signing a military cooperation agreement on Tuesday. The military deal was signed in Khartoum by the Sudanese army chief of staff, Lt Gen Mohamed-Osman al-Hussein and his Egyptian counterpart Lt Gen Mohamed Farid who arrived in the Sudanese capital on Monday leading a high-level military delegation. "The Chiefs of Staff of Sudan's and Egypt's armies signed a joint cooperation (...) - News / FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY

March 3, 2021 (JUBA) - A Thai medic accused of injecting 273 Thai troops on a peace keeping mission in South Sudan with fake Covid-19 vaccines has been dismissed, a military official confirmed. Supreme Commander General Chalermphol Srisawat was quoted saying the army medic, a lieutenant, gave injections of harmless plain water, claiming it was a Covid-19 vaccine. Each of the Thai soldiers reportedly paid 20 US dollars for vaccination. Chalermphol said the commander of the Thai troops in (...) - News / South Sudan, Coronavirus

March 1, 2021 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese government should restrict unlawful activities by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia which continues to extend its powers and arrest people in extrajudicial detention centres, Human Rights Watch said on Monday today. The death under torture of Baha El-Din Nouri an RSF detention facility in Khartoum on 20 December, confirmed reports about the unlawful activities of the militia which accused of war crimes and human rights violations during the former (...) - News

March 1, 2021 (GENEVA) - Three international human rights groups are due to present their recent work on South Sudan on March 2. The presentations will be at a side event in advance of an important UN Human Rights Council vote on the young nation. The Human Rights Council will, during the 46th Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva from February 22 to March 23, decide whether to renew the essential mandate of the UN Commission on Human Rights in the East African country. (...) - News / FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY

March 1, 2021 (JUBA) - South Sudan's health ministry said it could consider extending the partial lockdown it recently imposed in the wake of the rising positive cases of the coronavirus pandemic. Speaking to reporters in Juba on Sunday, the incident manager for COVID-19 in the ministry of health, Richard Lako said the number of positive COVID-19 cases reached 7,926 on Sunday. "There is real community transmission, cases are still going up and the number of deaths is going up which calls (...) - News

March 1, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - Atul Khare, UN Under-Secretary-General for Operational Support Sudan on Monday discussed with the Sudanese official UNAMID's drawdown and ways to ensure a successful withdrawal. Last December, the UN Security Council terminated the mandate of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) on 31 December 2020. The former mission is now withdrawing its military and civilian personnel as the liquidation process should be completed by 30 June (...) - News / Darfur peacekeeping mission (UNAMID), FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY

March 1, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - A member of the Sovereign Council, Hadi Idris, said that the Land and Hawakeer Commission, which will be established soon, will use traditional conflict resolution methods and customs to settle the conditions of settlers and ensure the return of the displaced to their areas. One of the main demands of the victims of the war in Darfur is land ownership. The Juba Peace Agreement of 3 October 2020 dealt also with the settlements of newcomers in the areas deserted by (...) - News / FRONT_PAGE_DISPLAY

By: Bol Khan The 1st of March is a Zero Discrimination Day. It's a Day that holds a celebration aiming to end discrimination and inequalities against all vulnerable and minority groups. In developing countries, deliberate Discrimination is common, the higher authorities are the ones perpetrating (not stopping) it against the children, women, elderly, vulnerable and minority groups. And they do this Discrimination and inequalities in government institutions or in the public sector compared (...) - Comment & Analysis

February 28, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - The head of Sudan's Sovereign Council and the UN Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, on Sunday, discussed the mandate of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNIFSA) and the situation in the Abyei area. The meeting between Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Parfait Onanga-Anyanga come as Khartoum and Juba voiced readiness to reach an agreement over the stalled process of Abyei future within the framework of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that (...) - News / Abyei

February 28, 2021 (GEDAREF) - Sudanese army retook control of large agricultural areas after fierce clashes near the volatile border strip with Ethiopia on Sunday. Recently, the Ethiopian-army backed Amhara militiamen carried out two attacks on Sudanese farmers in the al-Fashaga fertile area where they looted thousands of freshly harvested corn and abducted two farmers. Sudanese military official told the Sudan Tribune that their units cleared the area from the militiamen who fled to (...) - News / FRONT_PAGE_DISPLAY, Ethiopia

February 27, 2021 (NAIROBI) – South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has urged East African leaders to waive visa fees for South Sudanese. Kiir spoke while addressing the 21st Ordinary Summit of the East African Community (EAC) Heads of State held virtually on Saturday. “It is in our best interest to ease the movement of people and goods within the region in order to facilitate trade and investment as well as contribute to our end goal of East African regional integration,” he said. The South (...) - News / South Sudan, FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY

February 27, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - Gibril Ibrahim Minister of Finance and Economic Planning has pledged to develop new policies and mechanisms to tighten gold mining and export revenues. Sudan, a gold producer, failed to crack down on smuggling and attract the much-needed foreign currency through the official channels for long years. In June 2020, the government opened gold export to private companies provided they pay taxes and royalties. But the law exchange rate pushed them to continue to (...) - News / FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY, Gold

February 27, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - The Sudanese government announced on Saturday an action plan on five axes to achieve the goals of the transitional period including economic reform, comprehensive peace, democratic transformation and foreign relations. The plan was adopted during a three-day retreat for the whole cabinet members to set the priorities of the second cabinet formed on 8 February after the inclusion of the armed groups, signatory of the Juba peace agreement on 3 October 2020. (...) - News / FRONT_PAGE_DISPLAY

By Ahmed Elzobier The cycle of deadly violence in Darfur is still ongoing. It returned on 16 January 2021 with the horrific attacks on the Krinding camps in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur State, in which more than 160 people – most of them ethnic Massalit - were killed. The attack followed the killing of an Arab man by a Massalit man during a quarrel on 15 January. El-Geneina city witnessed a similar revenge attack by some Arab militia at the end of December 2019. The latest attack (...) - Comment & Analysis

February 26, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - David Malpass, World Bank Group (WB) President, Friday expected quick clearance of Sudan's external debt after the floating of its local currency. Malpass made his remarks in a speech at a videoconference meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors on "Global Economy and Policy Actions for a Transformative and Equitable Recovery” on Friday. The WB president said they closely worked with Sudan to unify the exchange rate of the Sudanese pound. (...) - News / FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY, International Debt

February 26, 2021 (JUBA) - The holdout National Salvation Front (NAS) fighters clashed with cattle herders in Central Equatoria state and South Sudan People's Defence Forces (SSPDF) last January, according to the UNMISS. In a trimestrial report to the UN Security Council on 23 February, the UN mission in South Sudan said that the Central Equatoria remained the key hotspot of clashes and revenge attacks between Mundari sub-clans, adding that about 70 people were killed as a result of the (...) - News

February 26, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - The official Sudan News Agency «SUNA» Friday published two letters of the former Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, in which he affirmed that there is no border dispute with Sudan after accusing Ethiopian «shufta» or bandits of causing troubles with the neighbouring country. After the eruption of the border standoff last year, the Amhara dominated government in Addis Ababa angered Sudanese officials when they spoke about the border demarcation (...) - News / Ethiopia, FRONT_PAGE_DISPLAY

February 25, 2021 (GADAREF ) - Armed Ethiopian militias carried out a fresh cross border attack and abducted two Sudanese farmers after looting their harvested corn, in the second incident of its kind this week. The attack occurred 10 km from the Ethiopian border, in the Al-Fashaga area. The farmers confirmed to the Sudan Tribune that the militias looted a thousand sacks of corn and twenty bags of sesame crop, along with a harvesting machine. Abdel Samei Obaid, a farmer from the attacked (...) - News / Ethiopia

February 25, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - The United Nations Security Council on Thursday threatened to sanction all Darfur armed groups signatory or non-signatory to the Juba peace agreement for impeding peace and regional stability. The U.N. Security Council's Sudan sanctions committee held a meeting on Thursday to discuss the final report of the Panel of Experts, submitted on 13 January 2021 about the security situation in the region and violation of the arms embargo in Darfur. In a statement (...) - News / FRONT_PAGE_DISPLAY

February 25, 2021 (JUBA) – The Ministry of Health and partners are rolling-out the second round of the national polio vaccination campaign targeting over 2.8 million children in South Sudan. The campaign, the ministry said, started on 16 February and covers 74 counties, with vaccinators going from house to house to vaccinate children, while adhering to the coronavirus protocols. The polio outbreak was declared on 18 September 2020 and spread to 17 counties in all the states of the world's (...) - News / South Sudan, Polio

February 25, 2021 (JUBA) – The ongoing rebellion in South Sudan's Equatoria region is undermining the peace agreement the country's warring parties signed in 2018, a group warned Thursday. The report from International Crisis Group (ICG), titled ‘South Sudan's Other War: Resolving the Insurgency in Equatoria' said mediators and external powers should push the warring parties to abide by commitments they already made to respect a ceasefire. “They should then broker a deal to bring the rebels into (...) - News / South Sudan, FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY, South Sudan peace process

February 25, 2021 (WASHINGTON) - U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called on President Biden and his administration to work for the extension of the mandate of the Darfur peacekeeping force by the UN Security Council. The Security Council, last year decided to terminate the mandate of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) on 31 December 2020. However, the council authorized to keep some uniformed and civilian (...) - News / FRONT_PAGE_DISPLAY, Darfur peacekeeping mission (UNAMID)

February 24, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - The former hybrid peacekeeping mission in Darfur, UNAMID, and Sudanese government officials on Wednesday discussed the protection of the mission sites and assets after the end of its mandate in western Sudan. The UNAMID terminated its mandate as of 31 December 2020. It has been given six months by the Security Council to complete the withdrawal of all uniformed and civilian personnel by 30 June 2021. On 21 January, the hybrid mission handed over its team (...) - News / Darfur peacekeeping mission (UNAMID)

February 24, 2021 (KHARTOUM) – Eritrea distanced itself from the ongoing border tensions between Sudan and Ethiopia and called for an amicable solution to the dispute. Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh and Presidential Adviser Yemane Ghebreab were in Khartoum on Wednesday. They handed over two messages from President Isaias Afwerki to Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok and the head of the Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. "President Isaias stressed the need to overcome the (...) - News / FRONT_PAGE_DISPLAY, Eritrea

February 24, 2021 (CAIRO) – South Sudan and Egypt have agreed to improved cultural relations and artistic exchange between the two countries. The agreement was reached at a meeting between the Egyptian Minister of Culture, Ines Abdel-Dayem and her South Sudan counterpart, Nadia Arop in the Egyptian capital, Cairo on Monday. Abdel-Dayem said the meeting reflected the continuous communication between Egypt and other African nations. She vowed to provide the necessary support in all creative (...) - News / South Sudan, Egypt

February 24, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan will propose to the new African Union Chairperson to form a quadripartite mediation to broker the stalled talks on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). On Thursday, a delegation headed by Alphonse Ntumba Luaba from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which recently took over the presidency of the African Union will arrive in Khartoum to explore the Sudanese position on the filling and the operation of the giant hydropower dam. "The (...) - News / FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY

February 23, 2021 (JUBA) - The South Sudan Council of Churches and other civil society groups have called on the government to take steps to promote peace, security and national cohesion as the country celebrates the first anniversary of the creation of its Transitional Government of National Unity. The appeal is contained a joint statement issued by the South Sudan Council of Churches, Civil Society Forum and South Sudan Women's Coalition. The call came as the East African nation (...) - News / South Sudan, South Sudan Peace Implementation, FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY

February 23, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Tuesday condemned the looting of a UNAMID team-site in North Darfur after its handover to the Sudanese authorities in January 2021. «The Secretary-General condemns the looting of the first site, Saraf Omrah in Darfur, handed over to the Sudanese authorities following the end of the UNAMID mandate in December 2020,» said Stéphane Dujarric UN Spokesman. The Saraf Omra site "intended to serve as a vocational (...) - News / FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY, Darfur peacekeeping mission (UNAMID)

February 23, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan ratified the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance of 2006 and the Convention against Torture and Cruel Punishment of 1984. The ratification of the two international conventions was endorsed in a joint meeting of the cabinet and the Sovereign Council on Tuesday, in line with the constitutional document governing the transitional period which conferred the powers of the Legislative Council to a joint (...) - News

February 23, 2021 (JUBA) - South Sudan Council of Churches and other civil society groups have called on the government to take steps to promote peace, security and national cohesion as the country celebrates the first anniversary of the creation of its Transitional Government of National Unity. The appeal is contained a joint statement issued by South Sudan Council of Churches Civil Society Forum and South Sudan Women's Coalition. The call came as the East African nation commemorated the (...) - News / South Sudan, South Sudan Peace Implementation

February 22, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - The European Union (EU) and the World Bank (WB) welcomed the foreign exchange rate liberalization in Sudan, saying it will allow debit relief and the country's economic recovery. Sudan Sunday abandoned its fixed exchange rate as it decided that the Sudanese pound price will be set by the forex market based on supply and demand. "The reform will pave the way for debt relief, including enhancing Sudan's ability to reach the Decision Point under the Heavily (...) - News / Forex

February 22, 2021 (KHARTOUM) - The parallel currency market in Sudan has been confused and reluctant to buy foreign currencies on Monday, the first day after the government's decision to abandon its fixed exchange rate and to unify it with black-market exchange rates. Morning trading in the parallel markets opened at 395 pounds per dollar for the selling price, while the purchase price remained at 390 pounds per dollar. However, at the closing of the market, the buying rate of the US dollar (...) - News / Forex, FRONT_PAGE_DISPLAY

A critique of ICG's Africa Report No. 300, 10 February 2021 Dr Lam Akol The International Crisis Group (ICG) issued its Africa Report No.300 on 10 February 2021. The report attempts to address the current crisis South Sudan is wallowing in and offers possible ways out of the political cul-de-sac it is inexorably heading towards with attendant insecurity. The basic premises of the paper are that the country is fragile and prone to ethnic conflicts; its winner-take-all political system ill (...) - Comment & Analysis

February 22, 2021 (JUBA/ADDIS ABABA) - 15 Ethiopian peacekeepers who accomplished their duty with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) are reportedly being harassed indiscriminately by the Ethiopian army for their Tigray ethnicity. Reports indicate that the peacekeepers of Tigrayan origin are being detained and physically abused at Juba airport by Ethiopian soldiers are believed not to be the Tigrayan descent. Currently, 15 of the peacekeepers are reportedly being protected (...) - News / FRONT_PAGE_SECONDARY, South Sudan, UNMISS - United Nations Mission in South Sudan