KHARTOUM: Sudan’s military leader General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan gestured in comments on Friday toward steps to ease tensions in the country six months after a military coup.
“We are embarking on a difficult period and we must all present concessions for the sake of our country,” he said, noting the deteriorating economic and security situation in the country in comments at a Ramadan gathering.
“We are prepared to put forward what we can to create the atmosphere for a dialogue that leads to solutions,” he added.
He, along with other military leaders, staged a coup on October 25, ending a two-year power-sharing arrangement with a civilian political coalition following the ouster of Omar Al-Bashir.
Since then, at least 94 people have been killed in security crackdowns on protests and dozens have been arrested.
Burhan said that while there were no “political detainees,” he met with the public prosecutor and the head of the judiciary to discuss expediting the release of detainees, among whom are key civilian political leaders.
He also said they discussed the possibility of reducing the current the state of emergency.
Such steps have been often requested by the international community as trust-building measures.
Burhan said these steps came in the context of concessions made by some political groups toward coming to an agreement.
Reuters earlier this month reported that a deal was under consideration, presented by parties aligned with the military, to form a new government.
Burhan had previously said that the military would only hand over power to an elected government. In Friday’s comments, he once again called for political parties to come to a consensus.
In his comments, Burhan said that, unlike in the past, no one group should be in control of the political scene. In comments before and after the coup, military leaders accused the civilian coalition of monopolizing power.
Burhan also said that court orders that led to the return of scores of civil servants associated with the Bashir regime would be reviewed.
Sudan’s Burhan gestures toward steps to ease tensions
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Sudan’s Burhan gestures toward steps to ease tensions
- "We are embarking on a difficult period and we must all present concessions for the sake of our country," al-Burhan said
- He, along with other military leaders, staged a coup on October 25, ending a two-year power-sharing arrangement with a civilian political coalition following the ouster of Omar al-Bashir
The UN says Al-Hol camp population has dropped sharply as Syria moves to relocate remaining families
The UN says Al-Hol camp population has dropped sharply as Syria moves to relocate remaining families
- Forces of Syria’s central government captured the Al-Hol camp on Jan. 21 during a weekslong offensive against the SDF, which had been running the camp near the border with Iraq for a decade
DAMASCUS: The UN refugee agency said Sunday that a large number of residents of a camp housing family members of suspected Daesh group militants have left and the Syrian government plans to relocate those who remain.
Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, UNHCR’s representative in Syria, said in a statement that the agency “has observed a significant decrease in the number of residents in Al-Hol camp in recent weeks.”
“Syrian authorities have informed UNHCR of their plan to relocate the remaining families to Akhtarin camp in Aleppo Governorate (province) and have requested UNHCR’s support to assist the population in the new camp, which we stand ready to provide,” he said.
He added that UNHCR “will continue to support the return and reintegration of Syrians who have departed Al-Hol, as well as those who remain.”
The statement did not say how residents had left the camp or how many remain. Many families are believed to have escaped either during the chaos when government forces captured the camp from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces last month or afterward.
There was no immediate statement from the Syrian government and a government spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
At its peak after the defeat of IS in Syria in 2019, around 73,000 people were living at Al-Hol. Since then, the number has declined with some countries repatriating their citizens. The camp’s residents are mostly children and women, including many wives or widows of IS members.
The camp’s residents are not technically prisoners and most have not been accused of crimes, but they have been held in de facto detention at the heavily guarded facility.
Forces of Syria’s central government captured the Al-Hol camp on Jan. 21 during a weekslong offensive against the SDF, which had been running the camp near the border with Iraq for a decade. A ceasefire deal has since ended the fighting.
Separately, thousands of accused IS militants who were held in detention centers in northeastern Syria have been transferred to Iraq to stand trial under an agreement with the US
The US military said Friday that it had completed the transfer of more than 5,700 adult male IS suspects from detention facilities in Syria to Iraqi custody.
Iraq’s National Center for International Judicial Cooperation said a total of 5,704 suspects from 61 countries who were affiliated with IS — most of them Syrian and Iraqi — were transferred from prisons in Syria. They are now being interrogated in Iraq.
