U.S. and European media

December 2, 2022

Reuters: Sudan parties mull alliance in looming elections.  More than 20 Sudanese parties including the main force in the south may field joint candidates in next year's elections, officials said, in what would be a major challenge to the country's president.  The oil-producing state is due to hold its first multi-party poll in 24 years next April, and opposition groups have already accused the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) of widespread fraud in the run up to the vote, a charge it denies. "(We are considering) joint candidates that sincerely believe in the democratic transformation ... Joint candidates or agreeing to support one candidate from one party," Waleed Hamid, a senior official from south Sudan's dominant Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), told Reuters on Wednesday.  Any alliance would transform the political landscape in Sudan where the NCP, which came to power in a coup in 1989, currently controls more than half of the seats in parliament.

AFP: More effort needed in Sudan vote registration: observers.  Sudan needs to redouble efforts to register voters ahead of its first elections in 24 years, international observers have said, amid denunciations of "irregularities" and even calls for a boycott.  The Carter Center, a democracy group set up by former US president Jimmy Carter, said that registration "has been high in certain states" but "participation has been uneven and many states appear to lag behind in meeting registration targets.  "In light of these challenges, the Center also urged the NEC (National Electoral Commission) and Sudan's state elections committees to make available additional funds for the registration process," it said in a statement late Monday.  Officials say 11 million Sudanese have signed up, but that contrasts with an estimated 20 million potential voters in a country of 39 million people.

Voice of America: American Funds Refuses to Divest from Sudan.  Shareholders of 16 American Funds have rejected a request from anti-genocide activists to withdraw investments from companies doing business in Sudan.  The campaign for a genocide-free investment has been led by Boston-based Investors Against Genocide.  Chairman Eric Cohen said royalty payments by Chinese oil companies are funding the Sudan government which is blamed for human rights abuses in Darfur and south Sudan. "In particular we point to PetroChina which is the closely related subsidiary to the China National Petroleum Company...and it's because of the oil industry that the government of Sudan has so much revenue that it can afford to spend on armies and militias...to attack its own people in Darfur," he said. "We're very supportive of that work because in the six weeks since the United States Sudan policy was announced we have seen enough new problems of a very serious nature that the United States government should take note of those problems and use them as proof point that the government is not moving yet in the right direction and impose sanctions," Cohen said.

Sudan Tribune: Nigerian diplomat to be appointed as head of Darfur peacekeeping mission.  The UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon intends to appoint the Nigerian diplomat Ibrahim Gambari as head of the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission in Sudan's devastated Darfur region, multiple sources told Sudan Tribune.  Gambari will succeed the Congolese Rodolphe Adada who became unpopular with Western capitals towards the end of his term after declaring that the conflict in Darfur is over and degraded it to "low intensity" violence.  The appointment will likely please Nigeria which was angered not to be offered the position of the post of the commander of the African Union-United Nations Mission on Darfur (UNAMID).  UNAMID was previously headed by Nigerian General Martin Agwai and was succeeded by Rwandan Lieutenant General Patrick Nyamvumba.  Nigerian troops along with Rwandans comprise the majority of the UNAMID force.

The Darfur Daily News is a service of the Save Darfur Coalition. To subscribe to the Daily News, please email [email protected]. For media inquiries, please contact Ashley Roberts at (202) 478-6181, or [email protected].