Sudan

Thousands of Sudanese took to the streets of major cities on Wednesday to protest the continued role of the army in ruling the country and the effects of recent economic reforms mandated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) will complete its drawdown exercise on June 30 as requested by the UN Security Council resolution 2559 (2020), which ended the mission’s mandate at the end of last year.

In a ‘unanimous decision’, Sudan’s Cabinet has pledged to hand former officials indicted for war crimes in Darfur to the International Criminal Court (ICC). 

Ethiopia and Sudan are locked in a dangerous standoff over al-Fashaga, a swathe of fertile borderland from which Khartoum evicted thousands of Ethiopian farmers in December 2020. Clashes between the two countries’ troops have claimed dozens of combatant and civilian lives.

Sudan's premier warned Tuesday of "deeply worrying" fractures within the country's security forces and called for reconciliation between civilian and military political factions. 

The new force will include the RSF (Rapid Support Forces) paramilitary unit, police, armed forces, and ‘representatives’ of rebel groups.

[…] In line with the Juba peace agreement, a 12000-troop force will be formed to protect civilians after the withdrawal of the African Union-United Nations peacekeepers from Darfur.

Sudanese authorities adjourned talks on Tuesday with the most powerful rebel leader from the country's south, saying they had agreed on more than three-quarters of a framework peace deal. A deal with Abdelaziz al-Hilu's Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) would be a big step in efforts to resolve decades of internal conflict in Sudan following the overthrow of former leader Omar al-Bashir in 2019.

The international community must stay focused on achieving justice and peace for the people of Darfur, the outgoing Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) told the Security Council on Wednesday. In her final briefing to ambassadors, Fatou Bensouda underlined that the Court is the only institution that promised hope to victims of the brutal conflict in the Sudanese province. 

Troika countries on Tuesday signed the Juba Peace Agreement (JPA) as witnesses to signal their political support for the deal and called on the Sudanese government to fully implement peace and democratic reforms.