KHARTOUM: Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok announced Monday a new cabinet bringing in seven ex-rebel chiefs as ministers, following a peace deal in October aimed to end decades of war.
Veteran rebel leader and economist Gibril Ibrahim, of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) — which played a major role in the Darfur conflict — was appointed as Sudan’s new finance minister.
“We have reached consensus on over 25 ministries,” Hamdok said, during a press conference in Khartoum.
“This lineup aims to preserve this country from collapse... we know there will be challenges but we are certain that we will move forward.”
Hamdok dissolved the previous cabinet on Sunday to make way for a more inclusive lineup in government.
Two ministers were selected from the military, with the remaining coming from the Forces for Freedom and Change group, which plays a key role in Sudanese politics.
The group was the driving force behind the anti-government protests that led to the April 2019 ouster of strongman Omar Al-Bashir.
Hamdok named as foreign minister Mariam Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi, daughter of Sudan’s last democratically elected prime minister, Sadiq Al-Mahdi, who died aged 84 in November from a coronavirus infection.
He was toppled by Bashir in a 1989 Islamist-backed military coup.
Last week, Sudan appointed three ex-rebels to the ruling sovereign council, the civilian-majority ruling body led by General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, which was installed months after Bashir’s ouster.
It follows the peace deal last year between the transitional government and the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF), a coalition of five rebel groups and four political movements, including the troubled western region of Darfur.
Hamdok said he is still pushing for talks with two remaining holdout groups who did not sign the deal.
Fighting in Darfur since 2003 left at least 300,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced, according to the UN.
Hamdok said his government will continue with completing other pillars of the peace agreement, including establishing a transitional parliament by February 25.
Despite the October peace deal, violence continues in Darfur, a vast and impoverished region awash with weapons where bitter rivalries over land and water remain.
Hamdok said the new government will focus on fixing the ailing economy.
Sudan’s economy was decimated under Bashir by decades of US sanctions, mismanagement and civil war, as well as the independence of oil-rich South Sudan in 2011.
Galloping inflation, chronic hard currency shortages, and a flourishing black market remain pressing challenges, with protests in recent weeks at the worsening economy.
Ibrahim, the new finance minister, taught as an economist at universities in Khartoum and Saudi Arabia, before he took over leadership of the JEM rebels when his brother Khalil was killed in an 2011 airstrike.
The government will also have to tackle stormy relations with neighboring Addis Ababa, amid both border tensions and long-running negotiations — along with Egypt — over the controversial Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile.
Sudan’s PM Hamdok announces new cabinet
https://arab.news/j5u39
Sudan’s PM Hamdok announces new cabinet
- Gibril Ibrahim, of the Justice and Equality Movement, was appointed as Sudan’s new finance minister
- Hamdok named as foreign minister Mariam Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi
First responders enter devastated Aleppo neighborhood after days of deadly fighting
- The US-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Daesh group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s national army
ALEPPO, Syria: First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.
The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.
The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.
The US-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Daesh group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”
The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.
Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid Al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.
The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.
On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.
Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.
“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”
Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.
Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.
“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.
