The head of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council and Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, welcomed the return of the Sudanese who desire peace and dialogue, but he excluded former Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok and the “Freedom and Change” forces from returning and ruling the country again, coinciding with a military escalation and a rise in the death toll from the Abyei attack, while Geneva is hosting international consultations to advance peace efforts.
Al-Burhan said, while addressing residents of the city of Halfa, in the north of the country, on Tuesday, that “the country’s doors are open to all Sudanese who desire peace, return, and dialogue,” stressing his categorical rejection of any external dictates.
On the other hand, he launched a sharp attack on Hamdok and the anti-war political forces, saying that “there is no place for an agent or mercenary in Sudan.” He added: “We will not allow anyone to dominate the Sudanese people... neither Hamdok, nor (Shameless),” stressing his refusal to return them to power. Hamdok heads the Civil Democratic Alliance for Revolutionary Forces, “Samoud.” Al-Burhan also attacked the Rapid Support Forces, ruling out negotiations with them, and said: “We have no talk with the rebellion; Either surrender, or be beheaded.”
Regarding relations with Egypt, he stressed that all Egyptian nationals in Sudan enjoy security and full care, stressing the importance of continuing cooperation and activating the joint trade movement to enhance the interests of the two countries.
His statements came after the killing of two Egyptians and the injury of a third in Khartoum, amid tension that followed the killing of dozens of Sudanese miners in an area in the far north of Sudan near the Egyptian border.
Protesters had closed the main road in Halfa locality, and prevented the entry and exit of Egyptian trucks loaded with goods, heading to Khartoum, causing major paralysis in the border trade movement between the two countries.
The outcome of the Abyei attack
In the disputed Abyei region between Sudan and South Sudan, the Minister of Information in charge, Yohana Akol Ngor, announced that the death toll from the attack on the Amit Market, also known as Al-Naam, had risen to more than 220 people. He told local radio "iRadio" that the authorities buried 153 bodies in a mass grave, and 73 in a second grave, for a total of 226 bodies, while the search for other victims continues. He added that the attack led to the displacement of more than eight thousand people. The Associated Press quoted a senior Sudanese officer, whose name it did not mention, as saying that the army carried out the strike, targeting fuel trucks coming from South Sudan, and it was believed that they were heading to “Rapid Support.” He confirmed that the dead were members of the Rapid Support Forces and those involved in fuel smuggling, denying that civilians were being targeted. The army did not officially announce its responsibility for the attack, after the Abyei authorities accused it of responsibility, and Juba summoned the Sudanese ambassador to protest.
In White Nile State, local government sources reported that a march attributed to “Rapid Support” targeted the Tandelti conversion station on Tuesday, causing a fire, causing it to go out of service, and extending the power outage to Umm Rawaba, Al-Rahad, and Al-Obeid in North Kordofan. Residents of the three cities confirmed that there was a power outage coinciding with the attack, while engineering teams began assessing the damage. Commenting on the news of the strike, American analyst Cameron Hudson believed that the Rapid Support Forces began the war as a large, traditional military force capable of confronting the army peer-to-peer, but it has come to rely on asymmetric strikes against civilian and military targets to remain influential. He described it on “X” as a “terrorist rebel group,” warning of its transformation into a “Sudanese version of the Houthis.”
In the Blue Nile, the forces of the “Establishment” coalition, which includes the “Rapid Support” and the “People’s Movement - North” led by Abdul Aziz Al-Hilu, announced on Wednesday their control of the Al-Baraka area, near Kurmuk, and seized weapons and ammunition following battles with the army and its allies. It broadcast clips that it said showed the deployment of its members in the region, while the army did not comment. The announcement came the day after the Sudanese Army's Fourth Infantry Division confirmed that it had repelled an attack on the town of Sali, north of Kurmuk, amid coalition forces' attempts to advance towards the areas leading to Al-Damazin, the regional capital.
Geneva consultations
Diplomatically, Geneva will host, on Wednesday, a meeting organized by the Swiss government and the United Nations, to coordinate peace initiatives, reduce escalation, improve aid access, and support a comprehensive political process, without the direct participation of both parties to the war.
According to a Swiss statement, representatives of Sudan's neighboring countries, the five permanent members of the Security Council, the African and European Unions, IGAD, and the League of Arab States are participating in the absence of both parties to the conflict. It is co-chaired by the UN envoy to Sudan, Pekka Haavisto, and Swiss Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Fassel. The consultations come after the “Quartet”, which includes the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE, presented a road map for a three-month humanitarian truce, followed by a political process leading to civilian rule.
When Fatna, pregnant in her final months, and her son with special needs arrived in the Spanish-occupied enclave of Ceuta in northern Morocco during a chaotic mass border crossing on July 30, she hoped to be at the top of the authorities' list to receive help. But today, nearly three months later, and with her infant suffering from kidney problems, Fatna (21 years old) and her family urgently need to reach the Spanish mainland to receive treatment in a specialized hospital.
However, traveling while her asylum application is being reviewed requires a permit that Spain's Socialist Party government, known as a staunch immigration advocate, is reluctant to grant to any of the thousands of migrants remaining in Ceuta. Some of them are still spread out in the streets, or hidden in the hills of the small coastal enclave, which has an area of 20 square kilometers on the northeastern border of Morocco.
* Calls to resolve the crisis
Local media documented the presence of unaccompanied minors, who had been expelled at the beginning of the week from an industrial zone near the border with Morocco, sleeping on the sidewalk in front of a police headquarters, waiting for their names to be registered. The government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is under pressure from the European Union and criticism from an increasingly dissatisfied people seeking to resolve the crisis, knowing that it will run in early elections on November 29. Therefore, the government is working on short procedures to decide on asylum requests, with the aim of returning most of the refugees to their homes, especially to Morocco, on the basis that they are migrants due to economic circumstances, and not real asylum seekers. But NGOs fear this risks violating migrants' rights.
A few days ago, Sanchez, one of the few remaining leftist leaders in Europe, said that Spain was dealing with the influx of refugees “responsibly, with a sense of solidarity and respect for the rights of migrants.” But more than 20 interviews conducted by Reuters with migrants, lawyers, non-governmental organizations and members of the security forces revealed that many of those who remained had clear reasons for seeking asylum or humanitarian protection: from unaccompanied minors, to families like Fatna’s family, which are considered vulnerable groups under European Union law.
During the past week, eight organizations, including Oxfam and Amnesty International, submitted a complaint to the Spanish Ombudsman, reviewed by Reuters, reporting the occurrence of “serious human rights violations” in the small enclave of Ceuta. These violations included the forced return of migrants from countries experiencing conflict, and the denial of the provision of interpreters and legal assistance. Spokesmen for the Spanish central government, or the ministries of the Interior, Regional Policy and Migration, did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment on the accusations of mistreatment.
In this context, Wendell Soares, coordinator of the San Antonio Catholic Migrant Reception Center, said: “There are people who would be in truly enormous danger if they were returned to Morocco.” The center received Fatna's family and dozens of people considered at risk, a number far exceeding its usual capacity of seven people.
* Deportation without explanation
Spain's right-wing and far-right parties are already angry with the Sánchez government, for granting legal status to nearly a million irregular migrants earlier this year. These parties described the crossing of migrants last July as a “deliberate invasion” by Morocco, and demanded the return of all migrants, while Morocco denied this accusation. Although there are plans for a new EU-level measure that would allow expedited deportations in future emergency situations, current rules require migrants to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Most of these migrants are from Morocco, but government statistics estimated last August that more than a thousand of the remaining migrants are from countries in sub-Saharan Africa, whose citizens obtain asylum in more than 90 percent of cases in Spain.
The new agreement requires the European Union to consider cases at border areas to speed up deportations. But it does not obligate asylum applicants to remain in their places of arrival, allowing them to be transferred to other border areas in Spain, which would ease pressure on the Ceuta enclave, where 84,000 people live, and which, along with Melilla, constitutes Europe's only land border with Africa.
For his part, Juan Miguel Morales, general director of the non-governmental organization “Sor Acujer”, whose name means “The South Welcomes”, said that if the cases of migrants at risk are to be properly assessed, these transfers are “the only option.” While 262 minors have been transferred to the Spanish mainland since the mass crossing last July, the government's strategy for the remaining adults is to convince as many of them as possible to return voluntarily. The government said last week that 12,000 have chosen to return since mid-August.
In this context, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said: “There are no secret deportations under any circumstances,” describing the returns as voluntary, and explaining that the authorities had received up to 1,200 asylum requests, 700 of which had been decided upon. However, at least nine NGOs said in public comments, or during interviews with Reuters, that the migrants they support were forced to return. The “Ellen” association stated in the complaint submitted to the Ombudsman that the police summoned migrants from Sudan and Chad on September 24 and 25 of last year and deported them without warning.
In text messages seen by Reuters, Moroccan immigrant Azhar Chaouni told volunteers at the German non-governmental organization Mission Life Line that he and other immigrants faced the same fate, after the police put them on buses that departed from temporary camps on the beach, and informed them that they would be transferred to reception centers. “They deported us without explanation,” Al-Shaouni wrote, noting that he was in Morocco.
Andrea De Pietris, an immigration expert at the CEB Center for Studies in Freiburg, Germany, said that classifying Morocco as a “safe country of origin” under European Union rules does not rob its citizens of the right to apply for asylum. Stressing that “it should be ensured that every individual receives a specific assessment of his or her personal circumstances.” He estimated that the procedure would inevitably be “long and expensive.”
*Testing agreement
Frontline workers and NGOs on the ground say the situation in Ceuta has proven that the 12-week deadline set in the EU migration agreement to process asylum claims is unrealistic, and seven of them expected the process to continue for months.
Police union representative Raul Pereira said the lack of resources, from staff to working computers, had led to only 100 migrant cases being registered per day until October 14. The union estimates that approximately 7,000 to 8,000 other migrants are still scattered across the city, sleeping in the open, or crowding into facilities provided by charities and civil society organizations to fill the gap resulting from Ceuta's overstretched social services.
“Given the amount of work remaining, this situation will continue until next summer,” Piera said in this regard. The Spanish government declined to comment on estimates of unregistered migrants, and Regional Policy Minister Angel Victor Torres told reporters on October 14 that it was impossible to know the number of people hiding.
In turn, Enrique Ruberalta, head of the Medical Syndicate, said that workers in Ceuta's only hospital treat migrants for scabies, tuberculosis, and gastrointestinal infections caused by spending long periods outdoors.
On Tuesday, the Minister of Culture, Arts, Communication and Relations with Parliament, and spokesman for the Mauritanian government, Mohamed Ould Bebaneh, issued a circular obligating his sector officials to use the Arabic language in correspondence, memos, reports and documents addressed to his office, a day after he assumed his duties as successor to former Minister Hussein Ould Madou.
The decision, which goes into effect immediately after its signing, brought back to the forefront an old debate about language and identity in Mauritania. The conflict has raged between Arabic speakers and French speakers since the era of French colonization of the country, and even after independence in 1960.
Ould Bebaneh was a member of Parliament from the opposition “Bloc of Democratic Forces” party, and he emerged at the time as one of the most famous and oratorical representatives. He recently served as Mauritania’s ambassador to Doha, before his appointment in the government that was announced on October 10.
As soon as he was appointed, voices in the opposition began to criticize his choice for the position of government spokesman, especially French speakers. Opposition activist Abdel Nasser Bebe said that he “does not speak any language other than his mother tongue, Arabic,” wondering: “How will he answer the questions of non-Arabic-speaking journalists?” How will he talk to foreign diplomats?
The minister’s decision to impose the Arabic language in administrative correspondence addressed to his office came to add fuel to the fire of the raging controversy, in what some commentators described as an indirect response from the minister to his critics, to assure them that “Arabic” is the country’s official language according to the text of the constitution.
Constitutional decision
On the other hand, the “Popular Campaign for the Empowerment of the Arabic Language,” an initiative launched by figures from civil society to support the presence of the Arabic language in the Mauritanian administration, celebrated the decision of the new Minister of Culture, and said that it “contributes to activating Article Six of the Mauritanian Constitution, and will bring the administration’s services closer to the citizen.” It also called on “all other government sectors and departments to issue similar circulars consecrating the presence of the Arabic language in the administration, as it is the official language of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.”
Lawyer Mohamed Al-Mami Moulay Ali said that the step is “plausible,” and recalls a constitutional obligation that extends to the official work of the state. He called for reviewing the description of the learner in “Arabic” as “monolingual,” and the learner in “French” as “bilingual,” saying that bilingualism is measured by proficiency, not by the language of study.
Constitutional background
Article VI of the Mauritanian Constitution stipulates that “the official language is Arabic,” while there are national languages that are the local dialects (Hassaniya, Pular, Soninke, and Wolof), but the French language is still strongly present in the administration. It was the country's only official language in the 1961 Constitution, following independence from France.
“Arabic” became an official language under a constitutional amendment in 1968, in the midst of disputes over the language at that time between Arabs and Negroes, in which many were killed, when the authorities decided to compel “Arabic” in education, which the Negroes rejected.
In 1980, the Military Council, then ruling, declared “Arabic” the sole official language. The dispute over the language in the Mauritanian administration has been an integral part of the political debate since the 1960s.
