EU denounces violence against anti-coup protesters in Sudan

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EU denounces violence against anti-coup protesters in Sudan

2022-01-18 20:19 Last Updated At：20:30

The European Union’s foreign policy chief on Tuesday said Sudan’s military rulers have shown an unwillingness to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the country's ongoing crisis, a day after security forces opened fire on anti-coup protesters in the capital. At least seven people were killed.

Across Sudan, meanwhile, the pro-democracy movement kicked off a civil disobedience campaign to protest Monday's killings. More than 70 people have been killed and hundreds of others have been wounded in mass protests since the military took over on Oct. 25, removing the country’s civilian-led government.

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said that repeated calls for Sudanese authorities to refrain from violence against protesters “have fallen on deaf ears.”

The coup has upended Sudan’s transition to democratic rule after three decades of repression and international isolation under autocratic President Omar al-Bashir. The African nation has been on a fragile path to democracy since a popular uprising forced the military to remove al-Bashir and his Islamist government in April 2019.

Borrell said the ongoing crackdown, including violence against civilians and the detention of activists and journalists, has put Sudan on “a dangerous path away from peace and stability.”

He urged the military authorities to de-escalate tensions, saying: “avoiding further loss of life is of the essence.”

The crackdown, Borrell said, also risks derailing U.N. efforts to find a peaceful solution to the crisis that has worsened with the resignation of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok earlier this month.

Hamdok, who was ousted in the October coup only to be reinstated a month later under heavy international pressure, stepped down on Jan. 2 after his efforts to reach a compromise failed. He was the civilian face of the transitional government over the past two years.

There was no immediate comment from Khartoum to EU's condemnation but Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the ruling sovereign council, ordered the formation of a fact-finding commission to investigate the killings, the council said. The commission, which will include security agencies and the public prosecution, has 72 hours to report back, it said.

Monday was one of the deadliest in Sudan since the coup. Security forces used live ammunition and tear gas to disperse thousands of demonstrators in Khartoum. Along with the seven killed, around 100 were wounded, according to the Sudan Doctors Committee.

Police said in a statement that protesters resorted to violence and threw Molotov cocktails on the security forces, in a “military-like tactic,” despite their calls for protest leaders to coordinate the route of their protest marches.

The statement said police used “the least amount of legal force” against attempted attacks on police stations in Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman. It said at least 50 policemen were injured, and 77 people were arrested.

Also Tuesday, the Friends of Sudan group is convening virtually in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, to rally support for U.N. efforts to end the ongoing deadlock. The group, including the United States, Britain and other international governments and world financial institutions, is meant to support Sudan's transition to democratic rule.

“International support and leverage is needed. Support for political process needs to go along with active support to stop violence,” tweeted Volker Perthes, the U.N. envoy for Sudan.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Molly Phee and the U.S. newly appointed special envoy for the Horn of Africa, David Satterfield, are attending the Riyadh meeting. They will then travel to Khartoum to meet with the generals and other political leaders and activists in the crisis, according to the State Department.

The protest groups, which have continued to mobilize protesters against the coup, have rejected negotiations with the generals. They insist on handing over power to a fully civilian government to lead the transition.

Though the generals welcomed a U.N. effort to find a way out of the deadlock, they have repeatedly said they will only hand over power to an elected government. They said elections will take place as scheduled next year.

World donors pledge $2.1 billion in aid for war-stricken Sudan to ward off famine

2024-04-16 08:41 Last Updated At：16:00

World donors pledged more than $2.1 billion in humanitarian aid for Sudan after a yearlong war that has pushed its population to the brink of famine, French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday.

Macron spoke at the end of an international conference in Paris aimed at drumming up support for Sudan’s 51 million people. The aid will go to food, water, medicines and other urgent needs, he said, without providing a specific timeline.

Top diplomatic envoys, U.N. officials and aid agencies urged Sudan’s warring parties to stop attacks on civilians and allow access for humanitarian aid, and called for immediate international mediation efforts toward peace. Members of Sudan’s civil society took part in the Paris meeting, but neither the Sudanese army nor its rival paramilitary were represented.

Sudan descended into conflict in April last year when simmering tensions between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere across the country.

“Much of the world has been focused on the crisis that was generated in the Middle East. As concerning as those developments are, other dramatic life-and-death emergencies are being pushed into the shadows,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told reporters after the Security Council met on Sudan on Monday.

“The world is forgetting about the people of Sudan,” he said.

The United Nations’ humanitarian campaign needs some $2.7 billion this year to get food, health care and other supplies to 24 million people in Sudan — nearly half its population. So far, funders have given only $145 million, about 5%, according to the U.N’s humanitarian office, known as OCHA.

After Monday's conference, Macron said, ‘’We are today at 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion) for Sudan.'' Of that, some 900 million euros comes from EU countries, he said.

Monday's conference among 58 countries also called on regional powers to stop funding Sudan’s war. Without naming them, Macron said, ’’The amount we raised today remains probably less than all the money raised by several powers'' to wage a proxy conflict in Sudan.

More than 14,000 people have been killed and at least 33,000 have been wounded in the yearlong war. Nearly 9 million people have been forced to flee their homes either to safer areas inside Sudan or to neighboring countries, according to the U.N. Hunger, sexual violence against women and girls and continued displacement are rampant and much of the country's infrastructure — homes, hospitals and schools — has been reduced to rubble.

“We cannot let this nightmare slide from view,” Guterres said in a video message to the Paris conference.

“It’s time to support the Sudanese people. It’s time to silence the guns," he added.

French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said the aim of the conference was to mobilize humanitarian funding to help Sudanese people, who have been victims of both a “terrible war” and “international indifference.”

The European Union's crisis management commissioner, Janez Lenarcic, said the 27-member bloc wants to ensure that Sudan is not forgotten as wars in Gaza and Ukraine dominate the international news.

“People of Sudan, caught up in this emergency, are almost completely invisible,” Lenarcic said. Sudan has turned into one of the worst humanitarian disasters ever on the African continent, he said, and added: “It is our duty not to look away.”

President of the International Committee of the Red Cross Mirjana Spoljaric warned that humanitarian action is increasingly politicized in Sudan and humanitarian workers are risking their lives to get vital aid to people.

“Securing a military advantage cannot be pursued regardless of the human cost,” Spoljaric said.

The United States and Saudi Arabia initially led efforts to find a negotiated way out of the conflict. But since October the fighting has been overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, which is threatening to expand into a broader regional conflict.

Relief workers, meanwhile, warn that Sudan is hurtling towards potential mass death in the coming months. Food production and distribution networks have broken down and aid agencies are unable to reach the worst-stricken regions.

The conflict has also been marked by widespread reports of atrocities including killings, displacement and rape, particularly in the area of the capital and the western region of Darfur.

At least 37% of the population at crisis level or above suffer from hunger, according to OCHA. Save the Children warned that about 230,000 children, pregnant women and newborn mothers could die of malnutrition in the coming months.

“Famine is a reality in Sudan,” said Abdallah al-Dardari, a regional director of the U.N. Development Program.

The military, headed by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, have carved up Khartoum and trade indiscriminate fire at each other. In 2021, Burhan and Dagalo were uneasy allies who led a military coup. They toppled an internationally recognized civilian government that was supposed to steer Sudan’s democratic transition.

Magdy reported from Cairo and Surk from Nice, France. AP journalist Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.