African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies ACJPS | المركز الافريقي لدراسات العدالة و السلام
(25 August 2020) African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) expresses deep concern over the deterioration of security in Sudan, specifically in Eastern Sudan where tribal conflicts have left tens dead and dozens injured. ACJPS has documented the tribal conflict in Port Sudan city that has left 33 people dead and 77 injured. ACJPS calls on the Transitional Government to ensure that the commission of inquiry set up to investigate the conflict is independent and impartial. The commission should identify those responsible and hold them accountable.
ACJPS further calls on the authorities to;-
- Ensure that any governmental figure suspected of involvement in the conflict is immediately suspended from his or her post pending the outcome of an effective and transparent investigation and, if there is sufficient evidence, charged and prosecuted in fair proceedings which comply with international standards of fair trial.
- Launch a disarmament campaign across Sudan
- Ensure that basic services are provided to the two tribes to address the root causes of the conflict.
Since August 10, 2020, armed tribal conflicts have resumed in the city of Port Sudan, which is located in Eastern Sudan (675 kilometres from the capital, Khartoum) and includes the main port of the country, and these conflicts have resulted in 33 deaths and 77 injuries (Their names are in annex No 1). The clash was between the Nuba tribe of African ethnicity and Bane Amir tribe of Arab ethnicity. At least 18 people have been killed and 35 injured from Bane Amir tribe whilst 12 and 22 people from the Nuba tribe were killed and injured respectively. 4 by standers were also killed.
On August 10 2020, at 12:30PM, the Nuba tribe held a peaceful protest march to present a letter to the office of the Sudanese Prime Minster located in Red Sea local government headquarters rejecting the appointment of the governor of South Kordofan State, Dr. Hassan Bashir. Dr Hassan Bashir was rejected by protesters on grounds that he not from the Nuba tribe of South Kordofan and was appointed outside the list of candidates nominated by the Freedom and Change Alliance, a body mandated to nominate state governors. While on the Main Street in Philip care in Philip neighborhood, right before Dar elSalam town, the two tribes started attacking each other and the violent fight continued for three days until August 12, 2020. Philip neighborhood is between Dar Elsalam, a town occupied by the Bani Amir tribe and the residences of the Nuba tribe. Both tribes use the same means of transport from City center.
These new clashes in Port Sudan city are not the first of its kind as Port Sudan and other cities in Eastern Sudan have witnessed numerous tensions between these two tribes, without any clear reasons for the outbreak of these tensions and armed conflicts. A reliable source informed ACJPS that the main cause of these clashes between the two tribes is poor service delivery. The two previous clashes between the two tribes started while they queued for bread at the bakery and for water.
It is argued that there are local actors behind the outbreak of these conflicts and they are driven by political interest to fabricate the tensions and conflicts in a regular manner, so as to create a kind of instability, by exploiting some people belonging to these tribes which are located in the marginal areas. It also argued that those local actors who seek to inflame the tribal conflict have a link with regional actors in the East region of Africa, and these acts are done in parallel through groups affiliated with the former regime that was ousted in April 2019.
It should be noted that the security forces in the region did not intervene to put an end to the clashes in a timely manner, despite their early presence in the sites of events, claiming that they had not received instructions from their leadership to intervene and settle the conflict. However, the central government in Khartoum has sent joint forces from the Sudan Armed Forces, Rapid Support Forces and Central Reserve Police to calm the situation.
On August 15, 2020, the joint forces arrested 46 persons accused of being involved in the conflcit, including the Bani Amir elders and charged them under Article 77 (Public Nuisance) of Sudan Penal Code 1991, Article 7 and 8 of Emergency decree , and Article 26 of Weapons and Ammunitions laws 1986. (Their names are in annex No2)
Article 77 of the Penal Code read as follows :
(1) “A person is said to commit the offence of public nuisance if he commits an act which is likely to cause public damage or danger or inconvenience to the public or those living or working in a neighbouring place or to those who exercise a public right”.
(2) “The court may issue an order to the offender to stop the nuisance and not to repeat it if it thinks fit and may also sentence him to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or with fine or with both”.
On August 15, 2020, the governor of Red Sea State Mr. Abdallah Shangrai issued resolution No 100/2020 establishing a committee to investigate the incident. The committee is headed by the prosecutor and members include representatives from the Ministry of Justice, Sudanese armed forces (SAF), Sudanese Police Forces (SPF), Rapid Support Forces, Freedom and Change Alliance (AFC), and Resistance Committees. The committee has been tasked to carry out the investigation on the incident and report back to the governor in a duration of two weeks. Civil society is however not represented in the investigation committee.
Previously, the investigation committees in such tribal conflicts used to include public servants and Judges working in the area as it was presumed that they had knowledge about the conflicts and its causes.
Background
The origins of the Nuba tribe, who are of the African ethnicity, goes back to the South Kordofan state in Western Sudan, as its members migrated to Port Sudan decades ago to work in the main port of Sudan, while the Bani Amir tribe represents one of the groups of Arab Beja tribes, one of the original population components in eastern Sudan.
It is known that Sudan has been witnessing tribal conflicts, especially between Arab and African tribes in the south, west and east of the country, and these conflicts quickly turn into bloody clashes between the rival groups, given the large numbers of weapons being spread in the hands of citizens.
Earlier in May 2020, a reconciliation document was signed between the Bani Amir, Nuba and Habbab tribes, after confrontations that left a number of people dead and wounded, and the agreement stipulated the parties ’commitment to the agreement, stopping the fighting, renouncing violence and spreading a culture of peace and peaceful coexistence among all parties, nonetheless, the conflict have resumed again.
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Contact:
Mossaad Mohamed Ali, Executive Director, African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies. (English, Arabic, Swedish): +46727712782, mossaad.ali@acjps.org
