Sudanese authorities have arrested several top members of ousted President Omar al-Bashir’s ruling party in a bid to mollify protesters who are pushing for a civilian rule. 

The arrests came as authorities said they had searched Bashir’s home and found suitcases loaded with more than $351,000 and six million euros, as well as five million Sudanese pounds. 

Sudan’s attorney general also ordered the formation of a committee to oversee investigations into crimes involving public funds, corruption and criminal cases related to recent events.

The crackdown, observers say, is intended to placate protesters who want the military council which took over after toppling Bashir to hand power to civilians.

The new moves were taken on the eve of protest leaders’ planned announcement of a ruling civilian council they say will replace the country’s current ruling military body. 

On Saturday, military rulers and protest leaders held a round of negotiations as thousands of demonstrators massed outside the army headquarters, calling for a civilian rule.

“We clarified our main demand, which is the transfer of power to civilian authorities,” Siddiq Yousef, a senior member of the umbrella group leading the protest movement, told state television.

“We agreed to continue negotiations to reach a solution that satisfies both the sides, so that the transfer of power will happen in a peaceful way,” he said.

He did not say whether protest leaders will go ahead with their planned unveiling of a ruling civilian council on Sunday.

Since Bashir’s ouster on April 11, Sudan has been ruled by a 10-member military council which has so far resisted calls to transfer power to a civilian body.

The foot-dragging has prompted thousands of protesters to remain camped outside the army headquarters in central Khartoum, calling on the military rulers to step down. 

Protest leader Ahmed al-Rabia said he expected mounting pressure from the street and from the international community to make the military council cede power in “two to three weeks”.

“We are done with the easy part (toppling Bashir). We want to remove the entire regime,” said Rabia.

In order to appease the protesters, the military council has agreed to demands such as detaining Bashir and releasing many political detainees and protesters.

On Saturday, authorities arrested Ahmed Haroun, the acting head of Bashir’s party, former first vice president Ali Osman Taha, former Bashir aide Awad al-Jaz, the secretary general of the Islamic movement Al-Zubair Ahmed Hassan and former parliament speaker Ahmed Ibrahim al-Taher.

Parliament speaker Ibrahim Ahmed Omar and presidential aide Nafie Ali Nafie were also put under house arrest.

The military council further said it will retire all eight of the officers ranked lieutenant general in the National Intelligence and Security Service.

A judicial source also said Sudan’s public prosecutor had begun investigating Bashir on charges of money laundering and possession of large sums of foreign currency without legal grounds.

However, the measures are unlikely to pacify the protesters and the push for power transition is expected to continue. 

Source: Presstv

The Multi-National Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Basin Commission made up of forces from Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Niger, has deployed troops after suspected Boko Haram terrorists attacked Cameroon killing at least 13 people and leaving hundreds homeless. Cameroon has been asking its people to collaborate with the military, stating that more attacks will be reported during Ramadan, expected in a few weeks.

It is a very quiet and deserted Tchakarmari village on Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria with carcasses of animals and torched houses reminding visitors of a sad event.

Resident Abba Malloum says the village of more than 400 people was reduced to ashes by Boko Haram fighters who came from neighboring Nigeria on the late Thursday night.

He says over a hundred Boko Haram fighters attacked their village, shooting indiscriminately and torching all of their houses. He says at least 13 people were either shot to death or slaughtered, many wounded, about a hundred men, women and children abducted, and their maize, beans, groundnuts and sheep burned as hundreds of their cattle were taken away.

Bachair Hachimi, traditional ruler of Tchakarmari says relative peace had returned to their village a year ago after several attacks by the terror group and residents who had fled started to return. He says even though dozens were killed in a series of suicide bombings, residents were determined to collaborate with the military in fighting Boko Haram, but the fresh attack has scared almost everyone.

He says because of the attack, people who had started returning home after the military pushed back Boko Haram fighters and installed a base of the Multi-National Joint Task Force have again fled to places they consider safe in the towns of Mora, Meme, Mokolo and Maroua. He says most of his people have lost everything they struggled to gather when peace returned to their village.

Midjiyawa Bakary, governor of the far north region of Cameroon has called for vigilance. He says after a crisis meeting, troops have been deployed to secure the area and bring back the abducted people whose number and whereabouts he said was still being investigated

He says he has asked for the remobilization and redynamization of self-defense groups and more vigilance from the population that had been dormant thinking that Boko Haram had been defeated. He says after a crisis meeting, the Multi-National Joint task force of the Lake Chad basin that is fighting Boko Haram has been instructed to organize regular patrols and systematic searches of people, vehicles and homes and suspected villages and towns.

This week, Cameroon authorities said they had detained 30 Nigerians who crossed the border Saturday on suspicion of links to Boko Haram Islamist militants.

Governor Bakary warned that Boko Haram was looking for opportunities to infiltrate when many people are travelling across the border for religious or national holidays. He said with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan beginning May 5, international Labor Day on May 1, and National Day on May 20, Boko Haram may want to infiltrate and kill people as they gather around mosques and markets.

More than 1,500 Cameroonians have been killed in attacks by Boko Haram since the insurgency began nine years ago.

Source: VOA

Boko Haram fighters torched a village in Cameroon’s troubled Far North Region overnight and killed 11 civilians in their sleep, security sources told AFP on Friday.

“Boko Haram made an incursion at night in the Tchakamari area,” a source close to security services in the area said, confirming a report from a member of a local self-defence militia.

It was the deadliest Boko Haram raid in recent months in Cameroon.

The bodies were “charred”, the source close to security services said, adding that the attackers had burnt the village.

The dead included both children and the aged. It began at around 10pm and lasted until about 1am Friday.

The Boko Haram conflict began in 2009 in neighbouring Nigeria, in which more than 27,000 people have been killed and 1.8 million left homeless in the country’s northeast.

The violence has spilled into neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

Source: AFP

Cameroon officials said Wednesday they are concluding arrangements with neighboring Nigeria for the return of 4,000 Nigerian refugees to their country by April 29.

The refugees from Minawao camp, the only official refugee camp in Cameroon’s Far North region, voluntarily opted to return home, according to the region’s governor Midjiyawa Bakari.

“We have agreed with the Nigeria government that 4,000 refugees from Adamawa state in Nigeria will be returned. They are the first ones to return but the process will continue after that. They will return by air. Cameroon will provide the security from the refugee camp to the airport,” Bakari told reporters.

“We (Nigeria and Cameroon) are discussing how we will do with their children that have been going to school here and the property they have obtained here,” he added.

The majority of the refugees at the camp are from Borno state in Nigeria but only those from Adamawa asked to be taken home because “there is calm and security” there, officials said.

In early April, Cameroon assisted 40,000 out of about 60,000 Nigerians who fled into Cameroon before Nigeria’s February elections to return home.

According to the UN, Minawao camp hosts over 57,000 Nigerian refugees who fled from the atrocities of terror group Boko Haram.

Source: Xinhuanet

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets across the country to call for the removal of interim President Abdel-Kader Bensalah, after their success in forcing the head of the Constitutional Council to resign.

The controversial head of the country’s Constitutional Council quit on Tuesday bowing to weeks of anger from protesters. Pro-democracy protesters had called for the removal of Tayib Belaiz, saying he is part of a ruling elite they want to abolish.

The resignation was yet more upheaval for Algeria since the ousting of long-time leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Bouteflika stepped down on April 2 after weeks of mass protests for his 20-year rule to end. But his departure has failed to placate many Algerians who want to topple the old guard and its associates.

In the capital Algiers, protesters poured into streets, held signs and chanted anti-government slogans. Similar protests were also held in other parts of the country.

Meanwhile, Algeria’s Army Chief Gaed Sala said the military was looking at all options to find a solution to end the country’s political crisis as soon as possible.

In a speech read out on state TV, he urged protesters to avoid violence and gave formal orders to protect the demonstrators.

Salah said time was running out and Algeria could not afford further delays, adding that more steps would be taken to meet the protesters’ demands.

Belaiz’s departure could herald that of other senior political figures who protesters want to see removed as mass protests entered the eighth week. 

Protesters want the removal of an elite that has governed Algeria since independence from France in 1962 and the prosecution of people they see as corrupt.

Source: Presstv

The African Union (AU) has criticised the military take over in the Northern-African country of Sudan following the ousting of Omar al-Bashir.

Bashir was toppled out of power by the military on Thursday following months of civilian protests against his 30-year-old rule.

The AU said that it is inappropriate. The AU in the past 10 years has red-carded unconstitutional changes of government and that is exactly what has happened here.

Omar al-Bashir has been in power for over 30 years and is not the longest serving African president. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea has been serving for 39 years.

Paul Biya from Cameroon has been in power for 38 years. They have been in power for a long time but moving them is not allowed. There have been five coups in Sudan since independence in 1996. To be accurate, five coups, two civil wars, genocide in Darfur; it is no wonder that people have taken to the streets.

Source: 702.co.za

Sudan was a repressive place for women under Omar al-Bashir’s Islamist 30-year reign. But women have reclaimed their voice during the latest anti-regime protests and are determined to secure their place in the future.

Dalia El Roubi was 10 years old when Omar al-Bashir seized power in a bloodless coup. She vividly recalls the drastic changes in her life when public order and civiclaws changed in Sudan shortly after the takeover.

“I clearly remember my childhood was taken away. We were young, but we dressed freely as teenagers and pre-teens,” Roubi explained. “Suddenly, everything changed: The way we dress changed, our school uniforms changed. For my generation, it was a strange experience, we had a taste of freedom and then it suddenly transformed. We became sexualised objects and our bodies became a battleground for those in power.”

Exactly three decades after the 1989 coup, the 41-year-old activist and member of the opposition Sudanese Congress Party said she was exhilarated by the leading roles women played on the front lines of the latest anti-government protests.

Speaking to FRANCE 24 in a phone interview from Khartoum – where she briefly tore herself away from demonstrations in the heart of the Sudanese capital to access her phone service – Roubi described incredible scenes. “Women are at the forefront, the leaders, here. It’s not the stereotype of women in the background cheering the men. Women start chanting and we also regulate the chanting. If the chants include sexist statements or are discriminatory, we regulate it, we just explain, there’s no aggression. It’s a harassment-free zone, it’s exceptional.”

When the latest round of anti-regime demonstrations broke out in December, one of the protest chants described Bashir as weak and compared him to a woman. But demonstrators changed that tune after women began calling it out on social media.

The international community got a crash course in female power this week when a video of a young woman in a white toub, or traditional Sudanese robe, leading a lively protest song went viral.

Standing on top of a car in sneakers, matched with toub and traditional bridal jewellery, Alaa Salah, a 22-year-old architecture student, epitomised not just girl power, but also the cultural diversity that was suppressed during Bashir’s reign.

Following the 1989 coup, Bashir’s alliance with hardline Islamist politician Hassan al-Turabi saw an austere brand of Islamism imposed on an ancient land at the crossroads of African trade routes, where merchants from as far as India and Anatolia settled, bringing with them a cultural heterogeneity that was an integral part of Sudanese identity.

Salah’s garment quickly turned into a symbol of cultural reassertion, a shout out to the Kandakas, or Nubian queens who ruled the Kush kingdom in what is now Sudan more than 3,000 years ago.

On Thursday, Sudanese Defense Minister Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Auf announced the army had toppled and arrested Bashir and a transitional military council would rule the country for two years.

But demonstrators promptly rejected the military takeover, with the Sudanese Professionals Association, one of the main protest organisers, calling instead for a civilian transitional government to be put in place.

“We are definitely committed and focused on ensuring this is not a military coup and we’re determined to make that clear. It’s not a case of, ‘The military is going to save us.’ We don’t want another Islamist with a different face,” said Roubi.

A byword for human rights abuses

Sudan’s future is being shaped in the days and months to come, and few protesters are likely to accept a two-year transition period led by Defense Minister Auf, a longtime Bashir loyalist who was blacklisted by the US in 2010 for his role in the Darfur conflict.

“The man who for the moment holds power, Awad Mohammed Ibn Auf, is himself associated with many of the atrocities that Bashir was responsible for in Darfur. He is alleged to have coordinated many of the attacks by the Janjaweed, the brutal militia that was so active and caused so many of the casualties in Darfur,” explained FRANCE 24’s chief foreign editor, Rob Parsons.

Sudan protests: ‘The leaders of the demonstration wanted more’

Under Bashir, Sudan turned into a byword for brutal human rights violations, including allegations of a genocide against Darfuri men, women and children during the conflict in western Sudan, which led to an indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the Sudanese strongman.

South of Darfur, in the Bahr al Jabal region, decades of brutal wars between the regime and the primarily Nilotic Christian populace finally led to the breakaway and independence of South Sudan, depriving Khartoum of the third-largest oil reserves in sub-Saharan Africa.

Women bear brunt of Bashir’s brutality

But combatants who took up arms against Khartoum were not the only ones who suffered violations by Bashir’s regime.

Sudanese women bore the brunt of the regime’s violations, ranging from vaguely defined public morality laws that limited their movement without male guardians to corporal punishment such as lashings to severe abuses –including rape – by security forces while in detention.

Women’s rights defenders were particularly targeted, in a systematic attempt by Sudanese authorities to silence female activists, lawyers and journalists, New York-based Human Rights Watch noted in a 2016 report.

Roubi herself was detained in 2013 during the “Sudan Change Movement,” which broke out after the 2011 Arab uprisings. Activists say more than 200 people were killed in a crackdown by Bashir’s security forces while Sudanese authorities reported around 70 deaths.

The arrest of a prominent, British-educated activist and former World Bank employee made headlines on pan-African websites. Upon her release, Roubi detailed the conditions of her detention in an interview with AFP.

Six years later, and on a milestone day in Sudan’s history, Roubi was dismissive about her detention experience.

“More than 200 people were shot down in Khartoum in broad daylight. I was detained for eight days. My arrest was nothing compared to what others had to endure. It’s a big problem – the lashings, interrogations, intimidation, beatings, families not knowing where their loved ones have disappeared. My case was different because it had high visibility, I was a World Bank employee and there was a different dynamic,” she said.

‘Strong-willed’ women

During the latest protests, the fear of arrest was hardly an issue, Roubi said.

“There were thousands arrested since the demonstrations broke out in December. On March 8 (International Women’s Day), they released some women prisoners and the government made a big deal about it. But we were ready to fill the jails. If we’re all ready to go to jail, it stops being intimidating,” she explained.Women protesters take to the streets in Khartoum

Bashir’s ouster does not mean that freedom in Sudan is guaranteed, but Roubi is optimistic. “It makes me so hopeful when I see young women and men, who do not know what it was like before the repression, campaigning for change,” she said.

Roubi is quick to clarify that Sudan had repressive regimes before Bashir. But, she explains, they concentrated on political and security issues and did not target women’s rights.

Despite the Bashir regime’s assault on women’s rights, Roubi proudly notes that, “at a social level, we have always had strong female characters”.

“It’s very rare to find mothers, grandmothers, sisters, students who are not strong-willed. We Sudanese women are breadwinners, we work, we demand respect – that’s our tradition.”

Reclaiming a more tolerant past

While Sudan today is a Sunni Muslim-majority nation, most Sudanese Muslims adhere to the Maliki school of jurisprudence and are deeply influenced by Sufism, a more mystical branch of Islam. The form of Islam imported by the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Turabi and Bashir was alien to the syncretic nature of worship traditionally practiced in Sudan.

Bashir and the late Turabi had a political falling out and a rocky relationship after 1996, but that did not ease the pressure on women. In recent years, economic hardships – compounded by international sanctions and the loss of oil revenues from South Sudan – saw Bashir move closer to Saudi Arabia, with its brand of conservative Wahabbi Islam making inroads into the African nation.

Many activists of Roubi’s generation could see the impact that decades of sustained hardline Islamism had on young women. “I was always frustrated discussing gender issues with younger women because the regime had changed their way of thinking,” she said. 

But that bleak assessment appears to have changed since the latest protests broke out last year.

“There’s no generational divide now. Young women have shown so much resilience and courage, mobilising and campaigning. There are obviously discussions still to be had – some want more public participation but are socially conservative while others are not. But we all agree on women’s participation in public life, in work and in leadership positions. Our voices now are louder and we’re being heard.”

France 24

The Sudanese military says it will be making “an important announcement” soon, as a coup d’état seems to be underway against President Omar al-Bashir.

Cameroon says at least 40,000 Nigerians who fled across the border for fear of election-related violence have returned home and another 20,000 are soon to follow.

Cameroon troops whistle to indicate it is time for departure as about 3,000 Nigerians prepare to return to the village of Kukawa in Borno state. 

Midjiyawa Bakari, the governor of Cameroon’s Far North region, says about 60,000 Nigerians fled into Cameroon ahead of Nigeria’s February elections, fearing that violence could break out. He says some 40,000 of them have already returned home and the rest will soon follow.

Bakari says within a week, they counted more than 40,000 Nigerians. They deployed the military to protect them, he says, and provided them with water and food while they stayed in Cameroon. The elections ended well so the Nigerians are going back to their country, says Bakari. But he notes they will be escorted by Cameroon’s military to protect them from any surprise attacks by Boko Haram militants.

Government spokeswoman Appolonia Ndukong says after escorting the returnees to the border, Cameroon’s military will hand them over to Nigerian authorities.

“We are working with the Nigerian authorities actually because they have a squad that protects, so they want us to report on any event that are taking place so that they make sure they provide the necessary protection and security services that are necessary,” said Ndukong.

UNHCR has previously criticized Cameroon for refusing to accept Nigerian refugees, in breach of its international obligations.

But Cameroon says all Nigerians returning home are doing so of their free will. Bakari says Cameroon neither considered nor treated the recent arrivals as refugees because officials often see mass movements across the border before elections. 

Nigerians in Makary who fled for fear of political violence say they thank god the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari on February 23 was largely peaceful. 

Thirty-five-year old Maiduguri businessman Nelson Chidi says he hopes this time around Buhari will ensure peace in Nigeria. 

“… Since Buhari entered there it has become worse. You can see Boko Haram. People are dying, innocent people are dying for a crime they never committed,” said Chidi. “People are not living well. You see Nigerians are not having light while our neighboring countries have light. We produce fuel, but in our country Nigeria, fuel is too scarce. Our people are suffering because of bad government.”

No doubt Cameroon hopes for peace as well, in hopes the flow of refugees will slow down. According to the latest U.N. figures, he country currently hosts more than 400,000 refugees, mostly from Nigeria and the Central African Republic.

Source: VOA

More than 60 civilians have been killed in tit-for-tat clashes between communities in northern Burkina Faso in recent days, the government said on Wednesday, the latest in a bout of inter-communal violence afflicting West Africa’s Sahel region.

Burkina and neighbouring Mali have seen a spike in ethnic clashes fuelled by Islamist militants as they seek to extend their influence over the Sahel, an arid region between Africa’s northern Sahara desert and its southern savannas.

Islamist attacks have risen in recent months, and the violence has reignited long-standing tensions between communities as certain groups are blamed for collaborating with the jihadists.

New violence arose near the town of Arbinda in Burkina’s Soum province on Sunday night, when a religious leader and six of his family members were killed by unidentified armed men, the ruling Movement of People for Progress (MPP) party said in a statement on Wednesday.

“On the morning of April 1st, reprisal acts were reported in the Arbinda Department. They were directed against a community following the assassination of a religious leader,” said MPP spokesman Bindi Ouoba.

The MPP statement said a royal family was also attacked in neighbouring Boulgou province on Sunday night, leaving at least nine dead.

Territorial Administration Minister Simeon Sawadogo said on state TV late on Wednesday that 62 people died in the Arbinda attack.

“Thirty deaths were the result of inter-communal conflicts, and 32 people were killed by terrorists,” said Sawadogo, adding that militants had taken nine hostages.

Deteriorating security prompted the government to declare a state of emergency in several northern provinces bordering Mali in December, which was extended by six months after jihadists attacked civilians in Soum.

Burkina Faso, which had previously been known for its stability in a troubled region, has suffered 499 deaths from attacks on civilians between November 2018 and March 23 – a more than 7,000 percent jump from the same period a year earlier.

(REUTERS)