Sudão: Ameaças à oposição

A coalition of activists, rebels and politicians forms the first united platform for nearly two decades The Khartoum regime has responded to the opposition signing the unity accord known as 'Sudan Call' in Addis Ababa on 3 December by arresting two of its signatories and threatening to 'eradicate' the opposition. It looks like the death knell for the National Dialogue, which the African Union presides over in the very same city. On 8 December, the head of the mediating AU High-Level Implementation Panel, South African ex-President Thabo Mbeki, suspended the process until January. However, it has raised hopes of real change among Sudanese. The National Intelligence and Security Service arrested two of Sudan Call's four signatories, respected human rights lawyer Amin Mekki Medani and Farouk Abu Eissa, leader of the (legal) opposition party coalition, the National Consensus Forces, on their return to Khartoum on 6 December, This confirms how seriously the ruling National Congress party takes the opposition move. Meanwhile, the scandal over reports of the rape by government soldiers of some 200 women and children in Tabit, Darfur in October continues to reverberate. The then Spokeswoman for the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur, Aicha el Basri, blew the whistle on UNAMID's failure to protect the women and girls and is now briefing politicians and officials in the USA. 'These outrages were hushed up to appease the Sudan government,' she said in an 18 November statement.