African Media Coverage

July 1-15, 2008

KENYA: Daily Nation
“Cuba-trained doctors best hope for South Sudan”
Published: July 7, 2023

They left as children and teenagers, crossing the border between dry southern Sudan and Ethiopia before being transported half a world away to the green strangeness of Cuba’s Isla de la Juventud.

Now more than two decades later, some of the 600 children who were sent to Cuba for education during Sudan’s north-south conflict are home, speaking Spanish, dancing salsa and working to rebuild their land after Africa’s longest civil war.

Among those who have returned – the so-called “Cubans” – are 15 doctors, including Daniel Madit, who left in 1986 aged 11. He was already a sergeant in the south’s rebel army.

“We were not forced to leave, we were sent on a mission and it is not completed,” he said at the end of a refresher course he was taking before starting to work in the south.

Read the full article here.

GAMBIA: WOW
“Darfurians find ways round trading challenges”
Published: July 11, 2023

The Western Sudanese region of Darfur was once an important contributor to the global economy. Cattle, gum arabic, tobacco and manufactured goods made their way into the markets of Khartoum, the Gulf States, and even Europe and North America.

Since the Darfur conflict erupted 2003, many of these links have been broken. Nyala, in South Darfur, is no longer the second-most important manufacturing centre of Sudan. Few Darfuri cattle make the trip to Omdurman market, near Khartoum. And the Darfuri gum arabic trade, which once made Sudan the world’s leading exporter of the valuable commodity, is now defunct.

However, in the high-risk conditions of the region, where insecurity and banditry have largely destroyed the economy, there are remarkable signs of adaptability.

“Trade is the lifeblood of Darfur,” says Margie Buchanan-Smith, co-author with Abduljabbar Abdulla Fadul of a new report Adaptation and Devastation: The Impact of the Conflict on Trade and Markets in Darfur.

Read the full article here.

SOUTH AFRICA: Sunday Times Johannesburg
“UN fears revenge for genocide charges”
Published: July 15, 2008 

International peacekeepers in Sudan were bracing themselves for revenge attacks this weekend as diplomats announced the country’s president would soon be charged with genocide and crimes against humanity by a court in The Hague.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the international prosecutor, plans to seek an arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir from judges of the International Criminal Court tomorrow. He will become the first sitting head of state and the first Arab leader to be charged by the ICC.

Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamed, Sudan’s ambassador to the UN, gave warning that the repercussions of charging al-Bashir could be disastrous. “It’s playing with fire. We want to caution and alert the international community to the possible consequences,” he said. “All options are open for us. All reactions are open.”

Read the full article here.