Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Khalil Charles
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Why has Sudan just set some protestors free?
The decision by Sudan’s Intelligence Services to release protestors arrested during the ongoing demonstrations across the country may come as a surprise to human rights organisations and detainees alike. However, those close to President Omar Al-Bashir are aware that after 30 years he remains an astute strategist capable of...
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Why has Sudan’s Islamic Movement become the target of street protests?
A prominent feature of the revolution in Sudan has now become a target of the on-going protests across the country. The noticeable increase in the nation’s religiosity and the numbers of people attending mosques and religious ceremonies was touted by Omar Al-Bashir’s National Salvation government as one of the...
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Can Sudan protests succeed without a leader to replace Al-Bashir?
A month after a spontaneous protest in the Northern Sudan of Atbara, known as the “City of Iron and Fire,” morphed into a series of organised demonstrations, there are still no signs that the resistance movement is coming to an end. What began as a protest against bread, fuel...
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Sudan ends 2018 broken and in turmoil
As the year closes and a new one begins, it is clear that Sudan is in the worst economic and political crisis it has ever experienced during its independence. Even if there is a sudden dramatic completely unexpected improvement in its economic fortunes going forward, my prediction that 2018...
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Sudan’s opposition leader and ex-PM Al-Mahdi returns to an uncertain future
The long-awaited return of Al Sadiq Al-Mahdi passed without the expected euphoria partly because of the death of his brother the night before. Descending from a plane at Khartoum International Airport onto a red carpet the veteran politician was greeted by his son Abdurrahman, the advisor to President Omar...
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Why did Sudan’s President visit Bashar Al-Assad in Syria?
The surprise visit to Syria by Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir to meet his counterpart, Bashar Al-Assad, has raised more questions than it answers. Why was there no official announcement? Why did he use a Russian military aircraft to get there? And what exactly were the substance of the talks...
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Sudan’s new election law triggers political battle for power in 2020
If the 2018 election law was supposed to unite the opposition and the government in agreement about the forthcoming elections in 2020, the bill which was passed last week appears to have achieved the opposite. Five months and 23 days after Sudan’s election law first entered parliament and after...
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Sudan’s economic, political future moving from difficult to unbearable
These days, predicting Sudan’s political and economic prospects is perhaps a job best left to speculators and fortune tellers. The plethora of economic woes and political strife has become a part of life in Sudan that is increasingly difficult to explain or to predict what will happen next. Politicians...
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One of Sudan’s most powerful female politicians, Sarah Nugallah, promises sweeping change
In the heart of the Sudanese capital’s Omdurman Wad Nubawi district sits Sarah Abdullah Abdurrahman Nugallah, one of the most powerful women in Sudanese politics. Nugallah is Secretary General of the National Umma Party (NUP), arguably the only real credible alternative to the incumbent 29-year-old Sudanese government ruled by...
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The Sudanese intelligence services are likely to jail more officers for corruption
This week’s sentencing of one of the most powerful intelligence officers in Sudan has not only sent shockwaves through the ranks of the National Security and Intelligence Service (NISS) and civil servants, but is also set to open the floodgates for more corrupt officers and officials to be brought...
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Will Sudan’s government reshuffle thwart economic collapse?
A day after Sudan announced plans to reduce the size of its government by over 50 per cent the extent of the economic deadlock has become clear. With the monthly inflation rate about to top 64 per cent and the consumer price index (CPI) already 50 per cent higher...
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Sudan’s miracle diplomacy brings talk of reunification with South Sudan
Just fifteen days after President Salva Kiir of South Sudan told the world in Addis Ababa that his political rival, Riek Machar, could never again be part of the country’s politics or government, he signed a historic peace agreement with his key adversary, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO),...
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Erdogan now has 12 consecutive election victories under his belt
Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s emphatic first round victory in Turkey’s snap election is being regarded in the country as much as a resounding defeat for a lacklustre opposition as the endorsement of a President who enjoys unrivalled popularity. The final tally in the race for the presidency saw the Justice...
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Unusual level of support for President Erdoğan as Turkey goes to the polls
It is by no means certain who will be the occupant of Ankara’s Presidential Palace come Monday morning. There are no predictions by election pundits of a landslide win by one side or the other, but in the absence of an outright victory by one candidate in the first...
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Sudan’s Al-Bashir may be President for life despite major challenges
This week’s cabinet decision to put forward a new election law appears to support the view that some members of Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) are planning to ensure that President Omar Al-Bashir will run for a third term in office, will win the forthcoming election in 2020...
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Sudan’s economic crisis fuels conspiracy theories
The Sudanese are not generally known for peddling conspiracy theories. However, during this severe economic crisis many elaborate claims and counter claims about the causes and consequences of the crisis are being voiced by sympathetic political commentators and ardent opposition supporters alike. A day after my arrival at Khartoum...
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Can Sudan’s President win his war on corruption?
The arrest of 16 prominent businessmen on charges of corruption and embezzlement may have made the media headlines in Sudan, but under the country’s current “illegal wealth” laws there are no guarantees that any of them will be convicted in a court of law or spend time in jail....
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Pressure mounts for Sudan to withdraw troops from Yemen
Despite the growing domestic disquiet, the Sudanese government has again confirmed it has no plans to pull its estimated 10,000 troops out of Yemen. The calls for withdrawal have made headlines in the country’s national newspapers reporting on a growing political movement and demands to bring the troops home....
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The sacking of Sudan’s Foreign Minister should come as no real surprise
The sacking of Sudan’s Foreign Minister, Professor Ibrahim Ghandour, does not appear to be a surprise for many within the Sudanese diplomatic corps, unlike the rest of the country, for whom it is a major shock. Nevertheless, three years and one month after his March 2015 appointment, Ghandour’s differences...
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Sudan’s emigration woes; the perils of escaping the economic crisis
For young people in Sudan, it is not difficult to understand the link between learning English and ending up dead in the Mediterranean Sea. That may sound far-fetched, but learning a foreign language is often the first step in the emigration process which involves travelling to neighbouring countries, such...
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Sudan’s internal power struggle amid economic woes
Last month’s shock reappointment of Salah Abdallah Mohamed Saleh, known as Gosh, as the head of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) was a snap decision that stunned the country’s intelligence community but sent the clearest signal yet that President Omar Al-Bashir is in no mood to loosen...
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Sudan-Egypt diplomatic impasse persists, despite return of Khartoum's ambassador
As Sudan’s ambassador returns to Cairo today after a two-month absence, the precise reasons for Abdel-Mahmood Abdel-Halim’s dramatic withdrawal remains unexplained. Likewise, there is no available information on the changed circumstances that have made his return possible. Two months ago, troops from Sudan’s Rapid Response Armed forces sealed the...
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The IMF role in Sudan’s bread protests
On 13 November last year, a report was released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the state of consumer subsidies in Sudan. It received scant media coverage but the report predicted future economic stagnation should Sudan’s central government continue to subsidise fuel and basic commodities. Moreover, the IMF...
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Nile water crisis places Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia on the brink of war
The irony of the presence of Egyptian troops gathering on the Eritrean-Sudanese border over its objection to Ethiopia’s Renaissance Dam is not lost on legal experts aware of Egypt’s direct responsibility in signing away Sudan’s and its own legal right to permanent access to the Nile river waters. In...