A political compromise offers renewed promise of realizing Sudanese aspirations

Sudanese civilian leaders lift documents following the signing of an initial deal with military powers aimed at ending a deep crisis caused by last year's military coup, in the capital Khartoum on December 5, 2022. (AFP)
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Updated 11 December 2022
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A political compromise offers renewed promise of realizing Sudanese aspirations

  • UN envoy believes the framework agreement of Dec. 5 offers path out of uncertainty sparked by 2021 coup
  • Analysts skeptical about achievement of goal of democratic elections and return of army to its barracks

LONDON: Sudan’s fractious centers of power may have signed a framework agreement intended to lead the country back toward a civilian government after the military coup of October 2021, but the doubts of NGOs and academics, as well as persistent street protests, caution against over-optimistic expectations.

Unveiled on December 5 in the capital Khartoum, signatories to the deal include Sudan’s ruling generals Abdel-Fattah Burhan and Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemeti, alongside the leaders of Forces of Freedom and Change, the country’s largest pro-democracy group, and 40 other parties.

Providing a path to a civilian-led transition made up of democratic elections and the return of the military to their barracks, the framework agreement stipulates a need for full civilian control over all aspects of society, with a security and defense council headed by the prime minister.

Responding to the news, Volker Perthes, head of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan, described the agreement as a “courageous step,” while John Godfrey, the US ambassador to Sudan, tweeted his support for the deal, which he said set a “credible path … out of the political crisis.”

Despite garnering positive support from the international community and the generals — Burhan chanted one of the protesters’ slogans “the military belongs in the barracks”  — the deal has yet to inspire enthusiasm among many pockets of Sudanese civil society.




Sudanese protesters deploy a giant national flag, as they march outside the UN headquarters in the Manshiya district of the capital Khartoum, on December 3, 2022. (AFP)

As the agreement was signed in the fortified compounds of Khartoum’s Republican Palace, protesters were taking to the streets of the capital to denounce the agreement as little more than a means for the ruling generals to retain power while concurrently absolving themselves of the political and economic outcomes of the 2021 coup.

“The goals of the agreement are establishing a fully civilian authority, creating a free climate for politics, and reaching a final agreement with the widest political participation,” Al-Wathiq al-Barir, a spokesman for the FFC, told the BBC last week.

However, Kholood Khair, founder and director of Confluence Advisory, a Khartoum-based think tank, describes the deal as essentially “a five-page wish list” whose biggest failing stems from its ambiguities and absence of detail.

“This agreement is supposed to be based on a draft from Sudan’s Bar Society, but it’s at best an initial agreement, a primary document, that does not lay out how we reach consequential elements, like who will be the prime minister, issues of financial accountability, transitional justice, and security reform,” Khair told Arab News.

Khair considers the appointment of a prime minister and a prospective cabinet as the first phase of the agreement and a particularly pressing one, given that these must be decided before the two-year transition phase can take effect, and done so within a month.

As someone who expected a series of annexes explicitly laying out the mechanisms for selecting a prime minister, and an agenda for the transitional government, Khair says the absence of the “vital” implementation phase makes her doubtful about the deal’s viability.




Sudan's paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo speaks with a delegate following the signing of an initial deal aimed at ending a deep crisis caused by last year's military coup, in the capital Khartoum on December 5, 2022. (AFP)

“What’s been made really difficult is the extent the civilian government will have space and capacity to deliver what the framework claims to want because just being prime minister is not tantamount to having political power,” she told Arab News.

Moreover, she added, within the pro-democracy movements “there are significant disagreements, in number and scope, and areas of divergence and, given the way this deal occurred — behind closed doors, without transparency — there is a lot of mistrust with many of the parties involved having lost the capacity to say they have the support of the street.”

And that could be vital, given the level of resentment within society that has built since the coup of Oct. 25, 2021, with more than 7,000 protesters injured, well over 100 killed, and projections that a third of the population will require humanitarian assistance next year in the absence of a halt to the economy’s downward spiral.

Gilbert Achcar, professor of development studies and international relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, shares Khair’s skepticism over what the deal really amounts to.

“I do not think it is going to solve the problem. The conditions are even worse than they were after the removal of Omar Al-Bashir in 2019, which has led to mobilization against the coup and the subsequent military rule,” he told Arab News.

“The agreement may say otherwise, but those at the forefront of the opposition to the coup are continuing the fight against the military and rejecting the agreement, which they see as a way for the military to legitimize its rule.”




Sudanese protesters perform a prayer outside the UN headquarters in the Manshiya district of the capital Khartoum, on December 3, 2022. (AFP)

Like Khair, Achcar questions the logic of the omissions in the text of the deal. For instance, he notes that it states that the military must return to the barracks, but points out that the pledges are lacking in terms of a timetable and completing measures. Instead, he sees the deal as a tactic for “winning some time” for the military while also serving to divide the opposition.

“The coup has been a complete failure by any objective standard, occurring at a moment when the country was already facing a severe economic crisis, and taking place without any signs that it would receive popular support — and it hasn’t experienced popular support,” Achcar told Arab News.

“Resultantly, the military has been unable to keep civil peace so they went for this deal as they were facing failure.

“They had to act, and in approving this deal with pro-democracy groups, all it has cost them is a few empty promises that will ensure that the civilian government will be taking responsibility for the economic and social crisis engulfing Sudan.”

FASTFACT

* Sudan has been in crisis since the army overthrew dictator Omar Al-Bashir in 2019. 

* The military and civilian leaders agreed to form a joint transitional government.

* Arrangement ended late last year when the military toppled PM Abdalla Hamdok.

* Hamdok was reinstated earlier this year but resigned following mass protests.

Khair considers the deal’s “real winner” to be Hemeti. Commander of the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces, he has received quick promotions following the 2019 coup that overthrew Al-Bashir. Despite facing a litany of accusations of crimes against humanity by groups including Human Rights Watch, Hemeti has succeeded by leveraging his domestic and international patronage.

“It is really worrying to see the framework recognize the RSF as one of Sudan’s four military forces, with its own commander and answerable to the civilian head of state, particularly as it is not a particularly well-defined provision within the deal,” Khair told Arab News.

“The generals are the only real supporters and have handed it to the FFC, who now have to very much deliver, and deliver very quickly in what is a fragile political environment with a precarious deal that absolves the generals from both the coup and the burden of governing.”

In the final analysis, Khair said: “The FFC have everything to deliver and everything to lose; they are not winners out of this.

“It symbolically ends the coup but if you continue to have protests, and conflict within the rebel camps, then to what extent can you say this is fulfilling the needs after ending the coup? It is really just a shift in post-coup dynamics.”




Sudan's Army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan (C R) and paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (C L) lift documents alongside civilian leaders following the signing of an initial deal aimed at ending a deep crisis caused by last year's military coup, in the capital Khartoum on December 5, 2022. (AFP)

For his part, Achcar believes there is room for some optimism, assuming that the FFC and pro-democracy groups will seek to get on board civil-society actors who have largely objected to the agreement, but he too is skeptical about their capacity to achieve this.

“After 30 years of military rule and all the privileges that entails, the idea they will hand this all over seems fantasy,” he told Arab News.

Predictably, the Sudanese government’s assessment of the framework agreement is more optimistic.

“The signing of the Political Framework Agreement can be considered as an essential step toward the return to a civilian-led transitional government in Sudan,” Ola Elgindi, of the media and cultural section of the Embassy of Sudan in London, told Arab News.

“It can also be considered as clear evidence of the Sudanese army’s determination to give way to Sudanese civilian parties to form a final agreement.”

Looking to the future, Elgindi said: “In the next phase, we hope that the agreement will include other civil-transition-supporting parties that haven’t yet signed the agreement.

“To everyone who questions the viability of this agreement, we say that it is still too early to judge and make any assumptions, and that we have a great hope that things will go well.”


North Korean detained after crossing land border: Seoul military

Updated 3 sec ago
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North Korean detained after crossing land border: Seoul military

  • The Military Demarcation Line is the de facto border area separating the two Koreas
  • ‘Relevant authorities’ to investigate the detailed circumstances of the incident
SEOUL: A North Korean who crossed the heavily fortified land border into the South has been detained and taken into custody, Seoul’s military said Friday.
The North Korean, identified as a male civilian, managed to cross the Military Demarcation Line in the midwestern part of the Demilitarized Zone on Thursday, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
The MDL is the de facto border, which runs through the middle of the DMZ – the border area separating the two Koreas, which is one of the most heavily mined places on earth.
“The military identified the individual near the MDL, conducted tracking and surveillance,” the JCS said in a statement.
It then “successfully carried out a standard guiding operation to secure custody,” it added.
The operation took about 20 hours, according to Seoul, after the man was detected by a military surveillance device sometime between 3:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. Thursday (1800 to 1900 GMT).
The mission to safely guide him to the South involved a considerable number of South Korean troops, the JCS said, and took place in an area difficult to navigate due to dense vegetation and land mine risks.
The man stayed mostly still during the day, and South Korea’s military approached him at night.
He willingly followed the troops after they offered to guide him safely out of the DMZ, according to the JCS.
It said “relevant authorities” will investigate the detailed circumstances of the incident.
North Koreans are typically handed over to Seoul’s intelligence agency for screening when they arrive in the South.
The incident comes after a North Korean soldier defected to the South by crossing the MDL in August last year.
Also last year, another North Korean defected to the South across the de facto border in the Yellow Sea, arriving on Gyodong island off the peninsula’s west coast near the border between the Koreas.
Tens of thousands of North Koreans have fled to South Korea since the peninsula was divided by war in the 1950s, with most going overland to neighboring China first, then entering a third country such as Thailand before finally making it to the South.
Defections across the land border that divides the peninsula are relatively rare.
The number of successful escapes dropped significantly from 2020 after the North sealed its borders – purportedly with shoot-on-sight orders along the land frontier with China – to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
No unusual activities by the North Korean military have been detected, the JCS said Friday.
South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung, who took office last month, has vowed a more dovish approach toward Pyongyang compared with his hawkish predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol.
“Politics and diplomacy must be handled without emotion and approached with reason and logic,” Lee said Thursday.
“Completely cutting off dialogue is really a foolish thing to do.”

Trump orders national park entry fees hike for foreign tourists

Updated 23 min 25 sec ago
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Trump orders national park entry fees hike for foreign tourists

  • US president: ‘The national parks will be about America First’

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Thursday said national parks would hike entry fees for foreign tourists to “improve affordability” for Americans, as he launched the country’s year-long 250th birthday celebrations.

“For this anniversary, I’ve just signed an executive order to raise entrance fees for foreign tourists while keeping prices low for Americans,” Trump told a cheering crowd at a rally in Iowa.

“The national parks will be about America First,” the Republican leader said, after issuing an executive order.

In it, Trump also instructed the interior and state departments to “encourage international tourism to America’s national parks.”

The order outlined that revenue raised was to be used to improve the infrastructure and “enhance enjoyment” of the country’s vast national park system.

It is a rare move by the climate skeptic president to promote the environment and green spaces.

In the executive order, Trump also revoked a 2017 directive by former president Barack Obama on “promoting diversity and inclusion in our national parks,” in his latest attack on DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) initiatives.

Some conservation groups have however voiced concerns about hundreds of National Park Service permanent staff members being laid off since Trump took office in January, ahead of peak tourist season in summer.


Mexican boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. arrested by ICE for deportation, federal officials say

Updated 27 min 54 sec ago
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Mexican boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. arrested by ICE for deportation, federal officials say

  • The arrest came only days after the former middleweight champion lost a match against influencer-turned-boxer Jake Paul in California
  • Homeland Security said Chavez had overstayed a tourist visa that he entered the US with in August 2023 and expired in February 2024

LOS ANGELES: Famed Mexican boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has been arrested for overstaying his visa and lying on a green card application and will be deported to Mexico, where he faces organized crime charges, US federal officials said Thursday.

The arrest came only days after the former middleweight champion lost a match against influencer-turned-boxer Jake Paul in Anaheim, California. The Department of Homeland Security said officials determined Chavez should be arrested on June 27, a day before the fight. It was unclear why they waited to act for days after the high-profile event.

The boxer was riding a scooter when agents detained him

The 39-year-old boxer, according to his attorney Michael Goldstein, was picked up Wednesday by a large number of federal agents while he was riding a scooter in front of a home where he resides in the upscale Los Angeles neighborhood of Studio City near Hollywood.

“The current allegations are outrageous and simply another headline to terrorize the community,” Goldstein said.

Many people across Southern California are on edge as immigration arrests have ramped up, prompting protests and the federal deployment of National Guard troops and US Marines to downtown Los Angeles.

Goldstein did not know where Chavez was being detained as of Thursday morning, but said he and his client were due in court Monday in connection with prior gun possession charges.

Before his recent bout, Chavez fought once since 2021

Before his bout with Paul on Saturday, Chavez had fought just once since 2021, having fallen to innumerable lows during a lengthy boxing career conducted in the shadow of his father, Julio César Chavez, one of the most beloved athletes in Mexican history and a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame who won championships in several weight classes.

The son, who has battled drug addiction for much of his career, has been arrested repeatedly. In 2012, he was convicted of drunk driving in Los Angeles and sentenced to 13 days in jail and in January 2024 he was arrested on gun charges. Police said he possessed two AR-style ghost rifles. He was later freed on a $50,000 bond and on condition he went to a residential drug treatment facility. The case is still pending, with Chavez reporting his progress regularly.

He split his time between both countries. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained Chavez for overstaying a tourist visa that he entered the US with in August 2023 and expired in February 2024, the Department of Homeland Security said.

The agency also said Chavez submitted multiple fraudulent statements when he applied for permanent residency on April 2, 2024, based on his marriage to a US citizen, Frida Muñoz. She is the mother of a granddaughter of imprisoned Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

US officials said he is believed to be an affiliate of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel that is blamed for a significant portion of Mexico’s drug violence.

Federal officials called Chavez a public safety threat

US Citizenship and Immigration Services flagged Immigration and Customs Enforcement about Chavez on Dec. 17, saying he “is an egregious public safety threat,” and yet he was allowed back into the country without a visa on Jan. 4 under the Biden administration, the agency said.

Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office said that an arrest warrant against “Julio “C was issued in Mexico in March 2023 in an investigation of organized crime and arms trafficking allegations and that Mexico on Thursday initiated extradition proceedings.

A federal agent who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter confirmed to The Associated Press that “Julio C” is Chavez. The agent declined to explain why Chavez was not arrested earlier in Mexico despite going back and forth between the two countries multiple times.

In Mexico, mixed feelings followed the arrest

In Mexico, word of US agents arresting a well-known athlete prompted mixed feelings.

Martín Sandoval Peñaloza, a newspaper seller in Mexico City, said he believes President Donald Trump wanted to make him an example.

“I think that the US government — in this case, Trump – is up to something,” he said, adding that it was “to attract media attention.”

Oscar Tienda, a Mexico City storekeeper, said he wasn’t surprised given the boxer’s troubles.

“I think it was predictable because he has had a lifetime of drug use,” he said.

Despite widely being criticized for his intermittent dedication to the sport, Chavez still rose to its heights. He won the WBC middleweight title in 2011 and defended it three times. Chavez shared the ring with generational greats Canelo Álvarez and Sergio Martinez, losing to both.

Chavez claimed to be clean for the Paul fight. He looked in his best shape in years while preparing for the match.

Chavez said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times ahead of his fight with Paul that he and his trainers were shaken by the immigration arrests.

“There are a lot of good people, and you’re giving the community an example of violence,” Chavez said. “After everything that’s happened, I wouldn’t want to be deported.”


MAGA faithful cheer Trump for pausing Ukraine weapons after bristling at Iran strikes

Updated 04 July 2025
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MAGA faithful cheer Trump for pausing Ukraine weapons after bristling at Iran strikes

  • With the Ukraine pause, Trump is sending the message to his MAGA backers that he is committed to following through on his campaign pledge to wind down American support for Ukraine’s efforts to repel Russia

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump is getting praise from his most ardent supporters for withholding some weapons from Ukraine after they recently questioned the Republican leader’s commitment to keeping the US out of foreign conflicts.
This week’s announcement pausing deliveries of key air defense missiles, precision-guided artillery and other equipment to Ukraine comes just a few weeks after Trump ordered the US military to carry out strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Bombing those sites in Iran had some hardcore supporters of the “Make America Great Again” movement openly questioning whether Trump was betraying his vow to keep America out of “stupid wars” as he inserted the US military into Israel’s conflict with Tehran.
With the Ukraine pause, which affects a crucial resupply of Patriot missiles, Trump is sending the message to his most enthusiastic backers that he is committed to following through on his campaign pledge to wind down American support for Ukraine’s efforts to repel Russia, a conflict he has repeatedly described as a costly boondoggle for US taxpayers.
“The choice was this: either prioritize equipping our own troops with a munition in short supply (and which was used to defend US troops last week) or provide them to a country where there are limited US interests,” Dan Caldwell, who was ousted as a senior adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, posted on X.
Caldwell publicly worried before the Iran strikes that US involvement could incite a major war and ultimately cost American lives.
Far-right influencer Jack Posobiec, another ardent MAGA backer, warned as Trump weighed whether to carry out strikes on Iran last month that such a move “would disastrously split the Trump coalition.”
He was quick to cheer the news about pausing some weapons deliveries to Ukraine: “America FIRST,” Posobiec posted on X.
Both the White House and the Pentagon have justified the move as being consistent with Trump’s campaign pledge to limit US involvement in foreign wars.
“The president was elected on an America first platform to put America first,” Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell said.
At the same time, the decision is stirring anxiety among those in the more hawkish wing of the Republican Party. Many are flummoxed by Trump’s halting the flow of US arms just as Russia accelerates its unrelenting assault on Ukraine.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican who hails from a district that former Vice President Kamala Harris won in 2024, wrote to Trump and the Pentagon on Wednesday expressing “serious concern” about the decision and requesting an emergency briefing.
“We can’t let (Russian President Vladimir) Putin prevail now. President Trump knows that too and it’s why he’s been advocating for peace,” Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, wrote on X. “Now is the time to show Putin we mean business. And that starts with ensuring Ukraine has the weapons Congress authorized to pressure Putin to the negotiating table.”
Trump spoke by phone with Putin on Thursday, the sixth call between the leaders since Trump’s return to office. The leaders discussed Iran, Ukraine and other issues but did not specifically address the suspension of some US weapons shipments to Ukraine, according to Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser.
Zelensky said in Denmark after meeting with major European Union backers that he hopes to talk to Trump in the coming days about the suspension.
The administration says it is part of global review of the US stockpile and is a necessary audit after sending nearly $70 billion in arms to Ukraine since Putin launched the war on Ukraine in February 2022.
The pause was coordinated by Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby.
Colby, before taking his position, spoke publicly about the need to focus US strategy more on China, widely seen as the United States’ biggest economic and military competitor. At his Senate confirmation hearing in March, he said the US doesn’t have a “multi-war military.”
“This is the restrainers like Colby flexing their muscle and saying, ‘Hey, the Pacific is more important,’” said retired Navy Adm. Mark Montgomery, an analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
Backers of a more restrained US foreign policy say the move is necessary, given an unsettled Middle East, rising challenges in Asia and the stress placed on the US defense industrial complex after more than three years of war in Ukraine.
“You’re really coming up to the point where continuing to provide aid to Ukraine is putting at risk the US ability to operate in future crises,” said Jennifer Kavanagh, a senior fellow and director of military analysis at Defense Priorities. “And you don’t know when those crises are going to happen.”
“So you have to be a little bit cautious,” she added.


Over 100 former senior officials warn against planned staff cuts at US State Department

Updated 04 July 2025
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Over 100 former senior officials warn against planned staff cuts at US State Department

  • State Secretary Rubio faulted for recklessness in amid "unprecedented challenges from strategic competitors, ongoing conflicts, and emerging security threats"

WASHINGTON: More than 130 retired diplomats and other former senior US officials issued an open letter on Thursday criticizing a planned overhaul of the State Department that could see thousands of employees laid off.
“We strongly condemn Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s announced decision to implement sweeping staff reductions and reorganization at the US Department of State,” the officials said in the letter.
The signatories included dozens of former ambassadors and senior officials, including Susan Rice, who served as national security adviser under President Barack Obama, a Democrat.
The timing of the cuts remains unclear, with the US Supreme Court expected to weigh in at any moment on a bid by US President Donald Trump’s administration to halt a judicial order blocking the firings.
The administration in late May notified Congress of a plan to overhaul its diplomatic corps that could cut thousands of jobs, including hundreds of members of its elite Foreign Service who advocate for US interests in the face of growing assertiveness from adversaries such as China and Russia.
Initial plans to send the notices last month were halted after a federal judge on June 13 temporarily blocked the State Department from implementing the reorganization plan.
The shake-up forms part of a push by Trump to shrink the federal bureaucracy, cut what he says is wasteful spending and align what remains with his “America First” priorities.
“At a time when the United States faces unprecedented challenges from strategic competitors, ongoing conflicts, and emerging security threats, Secretary Rubio’s decision to gut the State Department’s institutional knowledge and operational capacity is reckless,” the former officials wrote.