بورتسودان كأنها خرطوم صغيرة، ويحتفي فيها الناس أيما احتفاء بالعادي واليومي من علامات السلامة: المدرسة التي فتحت وتلميذاتها في الأبيض والأزرق وفي حوشها خيم الإيواء؛ السوق الفاتح، البنك الزحمة، اللقمة الهنية واللافتة بصورة البرهان مع تحيات أولاد كده و"نقطة سطر جديد."
من فن السوق المطلوق: يبيع صبيان الهدندوة في محطة هيا نبق ودوم تام ومقشر ويعرض فتيان الرشايدة تلفونات آيفون ١٣ و١٤ و١٥ جديدة لنج في أغلفتها البلاستيكية في عصبة كل يحمل ٢ و٣، والجمار ٣٠٠ ج.
وخلاف ذلك بالات من القطن على القندرانات في طريقها إلى بورتسودان وشوالات داب وسماد يوريا في طريقها إلى الداخل. وهاك يا زميل!
يصل الأمباز من النهود وجهاتها إلى سوق عطبرة الذي صار محل سوق أم درمان بحراسة يقوم بها كل تاجر ينظم قواتا تحميه من الدعم السريع وربما تصبح شركات ذات تخصص.
عطبرة - صابرين خط مواصلات مثله مثل عطبرة - الدامر، وكذلك عطبرة - أسوان (١٠٠ - ١٥٠ ألف ج)
من سوق عطبرة: الموز أبو نقطة الكيلو بألف، العنب العلبة مليانة شديد بألفين، ثلاثة تفاحات بألف، البطيخة الكبيرة بألفين، خلي بالك، حصل، حصل!
شوال البصل في بير الباشا شمال شندي: ٣ ألف، سماحة بصل، جديد ولا بصل القرآن، يبيعه صبيان حفاة لكن أولياء، يطعمون أهلهم الحلال.
يوافق اليوم ٥ مايو ذكرى ميلاد المرحوم كارل ماركس في ترير الألمانية في العام ١٨١٨.
سلام للجميع. من نقل عني تعريب خطابات ماركس والمواد الأخرى التي أعرض تعريبي لها فلينسبها، وغير ذلك خفة يد.
غادرت عالمنا في ٢٧ أبريل الماضي السيدة الدكتورة وندي جيمس (١٩٤٠ – ٢٠٢٤)، أستاذة علم الأنثربولوجي في جامعة أكسفورد من العام ١٩٧٢ حتى العام ٢٠٠٧، وبعض تراث الدكتورة جيمس ثلاث دراسات حقلية عظيمة عن شعب الأدوك في الحيز الحدودي بين السودان واثيوبيا، دخلت بهم التاريخ المكتوب. ماتت الدكتورة جيمس في دارها في أكسفورد بعض مرض طويل، وخلفت زوجها الدكتور دوغلاس جونسون ابنهما روجر وابنتهما فيونا وحفيدهما سورين. رحم الله وندي جيمس وأحسن إليها، كل من عليها فان.
James 1999 The Listening Ebony: Moral Knowledge, Religion and Power Among the Uduk of Sudan, Oxford University Press.
James 2009 War and Survival in Sudan's Frontierlands: Voices from the Blue Nile, Oxford University Press.
Sudan Taqaddum civil movement struggles to organise expansion meet
The coalition led by Sudanese former prime minister Abdalla Hamdok is keen to bring in more political movements. But its ambitions clash with regional interests in the country's civil war.
The coalition led by Sudanese former prime minister Abdalla Hamdok is keen to bring in more political movements. But its ambitions clash with regional interests in the country's civil war.
Former Sudanese prime minister Abdalla Hamdok, in December 2019. © Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters
The Coordination of Civil Democratic Forces, a Sudanese umbrella group also known as Taqaddum, was supposed to hold a conference in Addis Ababa from 9 to 14 May in a bid to enlarge its membership. But logistical and security issues related to the civil war that erupted in Sudan a year ago - and which has escalated in recent weeks (AI, 24/04/24) - have prompted a delay, probably until the end of this month.
The United States, the European Union and the African Union are also keen for Taqaddum to grow, bringing on board other political parties and movements that would contribute to preparations for a post-conflict period (AI, 13/02/24 and 02/02/24). Some 600 individuals are expected to take part in the conference, which is due to be held at the AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital.
Democratic ambitions
Delegates are expected to elect legislative and executive committees. The movement's leader, former prime minister Abdalla Hamdok, is likely to join one of these entities, although US special envoy for Sudan, Tom Perriello is keen for him not to steal the limelight (AI, 12/04/24). The civil movement could then attend peace talks in Jeddah (also postponed for the time being), where the interests of regional players will come up against the democratic ambitions of Sudan's civil society.
The text that is due to be adopted at the end of the conference will include a clause governing future agreements in Sudan. The aim is to avoid a new pact between the regular Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) like the one that brought about the October 2021 coup against the transitional government - before that alliance shattered with catastrophic consequences in April 2023.
Resistance committees
The invitation list is still under discussion. According to one of its diplomats, the US - a key sponsor of the gathering alongside the EU, Norway, the United Kingdom and Japan - is waiting for other groups to be included before confirming its financial participation. Among other things, Washington is insisting that more resistance committees (RCs, informal neighbourhood networks initially set up to oppose president Omar al-Bashir and then the putschists who ousted him) be invited. But the RCs that are already members of Taqaddum are reluctant to welcome others. Moreover, the Forces of Freedom and Change, a "big tent" coalition that backed Hamdok's leadership of the transitional government and which retains a lot of clout within the Taqaddum, does not see the RCs as carrying much political weight.
Some RC members want nothing to do with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), whose leader, Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani, served in Bashir's government, or with Ali al-Hajj's Popular Congress Party (PCP), an Islamist movement that has distanced itself from Bashir's National Congress Party (AI, 12/10/18). Internal divisions pervade the DUP and PCP and some of their leaders maintain links with the Taqaddum. In December 2022, some of them signed the framework agreement with the ruling military that was supposed to relaunch Sudan's transition to a civilian government. Many Sudanese see that deal's shortcomings as a stepping stone to the current crisis.
Finally, discussions have stalled with the communists and socialists in the Sudanese Ba'ath Party, who in a March communiqué denounced what they called "a political settlement project being discussed in secret" and who now seem to want to go their own way. The party dropped out of negotiations with the army in 2019 and did not sign the 2022 framework agreement; they now refuse to have any contact with the military.
Humanitarian issues
The Coordination of Civil Democratic Forces, a Sudanese umbrella group also known as Taqaddum, was supposed to hold a conference in Addis Ababa from 9 to 14 May in a bid to enlarge its membership. But logistical and security issues related to the civil war that erupted in Sudan a year ago - and which has escalated in recent weeks (AI, 24/04/24) - have prompted a delay, probably until the end of this month.
The United States, the European Union and the African Union are also keen for Taqaddum to grow, bringing on board other political parties and movements that would contribute to preparations for a post-conflict period (AI, 13/02/24 and 02/02/24). Some 600 individuals are expected to take part in the conference, which is due to be held at the AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital.
Democratic ambitions
Delegates are expected to elect legislative and executive committees. The movement's leader, former prime minister Abdalla Hamdok, is likely to join one of these entities, although US special envoy for Sudan, Tom Perriello is keen for him not to steal the limelight (AI, 12/04/24). The civil movement could then attend peace talks in Jeddah (also postponed for the time being), where the interests of regional players will come up against the democratic ambitions of Sudan's civil society.
The text that is due to be adopted at the end of the conference will include a clause governing future agreements in Sudan. The aim is to avoid a new pact between the regular Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) like the one that brought about the October 2021 coup against the transitional government - before that alliance shattered with catastrophic consequences in April 2023.
Resistance committees
The invitation list is still under discussion. According to one of its diplomats, the US - a key sponsor of the gathering alongside the EU, Norway, the United Kingdom and Japan - is waiting for other groups to be included before confirming its financial participation. Among other things, Washington is insisting that more resistance committees (RCs, informal neighbourhood networks initially set up to oppose president Omar al-Bashir and then the putschists who ousted him) be invited. But the RCs that are already members of Taqaddum are reluctant to welcome others. Moreover, the Forces of Freedom and Change, a "big tent" coalition that backed Hamdok's leadership of the transitional government and which retains a lot of clout within the Taqaddum, does not see the RCs as carrying much political weight.
Some RC members want nothing to do with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), whose leader, Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani, served in Bashir's government, or with Ali al-Hajj's Popular Congress Party (PCP), an Islamist movement that has distanced itself from Bashir's National Congress Party (AI, 12/10/18). Internal divisions pervade the DUP and PCP and some of their leaders maintain links with the Taqaddum. In December 2022, some of them signed the framework agreement with the ruling military that was supposed to relaunch Sudan's transition to a civilian government. Many Sudanese see that deal's shortcomings as a stepping stone to the current crisis.
Finally, discussions have stalled with the communists and socialists in the Sudanese Ba'ath Party, who in a March communiqué denounced what they called "a political settlement project being discussed in secret" and who now seem to want to go their own way. The party dropped out of negotiations with the army in 2019 and did not sign the 2022 framework agreement; they now refuse to have any contact with the military.
Humanitarian issues
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Only armed groups considered to be neutral and which participated in the creation of the Taqaddum - such as the Sudan Liberation Movement-Transitional Council, the Gathering of Sudan Liberation Forces and the new Justice and Equality Movement (JEM, a splinter of the JEM led by Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim AI, 02/10/23) - are expected to attend the Addis conference.
Meanwhile, the "emergency rooms", networks of volunteers that work in areas beyond the reach of aid workers, are refusing to join the process, for fear of compromising their work on the ground. Although officially neutral, the SAF accuses the Taqaddum of backing its enemies in the RSF.
Taqaddum representatives have been working to shed this image internationally, most noticeably when Hamdok toured Europe last month after a major humanitarian conference in Paris alongside Sudanese Congress Party leaders Omar el-Degeir and Khalid Omer, as well as the leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), Yasir Arman.
According to one source within the movement, some Taqaddum members continue to hold talks with both the SAF and the RSF. Under a joint declaration signed by the Taqaddum and the RSF in Addis Ababa in January, a committee made up of members of both entities was set up, but it has since made little headway, mainly because a lack of guarantees from the paramilitaries on humanitarian issues.
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Meanwhile, the "emergency rooms", networks of volunteers that work in areas beyond the reach of aid workers, are refusing to join the process, for fear of compromising their work on the ground. Although officially neutral, the SAF accuses the Taqaddum of backing its enemies in the RSF.
Taqaddum representatives have been working to shed this image internationally, most noticeably when Hamdok toured Europe last month after a major humanitarian conference in Paris alongside Sudanese Congress Party leaders Omar el-Degeir and Khalid Omer, as well as the leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), Yasir Arman.
According to one source within the movement, some Taqaddum members continue to hold talks with both the SAF and the RSF. Under a joint declaration signed by the Taqaddum and the RSF in Addis Ababa in January, a committee made up of members of both entities was set up, but it has since made little headway, mainly because a lack of guarantees from the paramilitaries on humanitarian issues.
© Copyright Africa Intelligence. Reproduction and dissemination prohibited (Intranet...) without written permission. - 65359713
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