UK All Party Parliamentary Groups for Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea and Yemen
Sudan
U.S. Pompeo urges Sudan’s Prime Minister to appoint civilian Governors and Parliament
U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has urged Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok to form the transitional parliament and to appoint state governors. Pompeo discussed the two matters in a telephone call with Hamdok according to a statement released by Morgan Ortagus the Spokesperson of the U.S. State Department.
Read More Sudan Tribune 1/04/2020
Security Council maintains Darfur troops ceiling until end of May
The Security Council on Monday decided to not reduce the current number of troop and police of the African Union-United Nations Mission Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) until 31 May.
Read more Sudan Tribune 1/04/2020
Darfur holdout group accepts UN calls for ceasefire over cononavirus
The holdout Sudan Liberation Movement/Army of Abdel Wahid al-Nur (SLM/A-AW) accepted the UN’s calls for a ceasefire in Darfur but reiterated its rejection to join the peace process in Juba.
Read more Sudan Tribune 31/03/2020
Asharq Al-Awsat: Sudan’s Prosecution Refuses to Release Bashir and his Aides
Sudan’s general prosecution said the decision to release of prisoners amid the coronavirus outbreak does not include former president Omar al-Bashir and his aides. It informed their families that they will not be released because they are facing charges without the possibility of bail.
Read more Asharq Al-Awsat 30/04/2020
South Sudan
COVID-19 stalls peacekeeping troop rotation in South Sudan
In early March, South Sudan’s Chief of Defence Forces, Gabriel Jok Riak, asked the Force Commander of the United Nations peacekeeping operation in South Sudan to suspend the peacekeeping rotation from five Asian countries. This raises procedural concerns and poses immediate and longer-term implications. The move targeting China, South Korea, India, Nepal and Cambodia was clearly aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19. Between them, these five countries contribute a third of approximately 16,492 peacekeeping staff currently deployed with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan.
Read More The Conversation 30/03/2020
Eritrea
Eritrea must free political prisoners and low-risk offenders to reduce COVID-19 threat in crowded jails, says UN expert
A UN rights expert has urged Eritrea to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spreading in its overcrowded jails by immediately releasing all political prisoners, low-risk offenders and others such as the sick and elderly who are particularly vulnerable to illness or death. Daniela Kravetz, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea, highlighted the case of an American-Eritrean dual national and daughter of a former information minister being held for more than seven years since she was a teenager.
Read More Eritrea Hub 02/04/2020
Ethiopia
Ethiopia Postpones August Election Due to Coronavirus
Ethiopia has postponed parliamentary elections scheduled for August due to the coronavirus outbreak, the electoral board said on Tuesday, a move endorsed by some key opposition parties.
Read More New York Times 31/04/2020
Ethiopia adopts new criteria excluding Eritrean refugees
Eritrea Focus has received very worrying information that the Ethiopian Federal Government is in the process of adopting “Exclusion Criteria” for Eritreans seeking asylum in the country. Our sources have asked to remain anonymous, but we regard them as credible. The “Exclusion Criteria” are currently being applied at “collection centres” i.e. refugees comps where asylum seekers are placed for refugee status assessment.
Read More Eritrea Hub 28/04/2020
If Covid-19 is not beaten in Africa it will return to haunt us all – Written by Abiy Ahmed.
There is a major flaw in the strategy to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Advanced economies are unveiling unprecedented economic stimulus packages. African countries, by contrast, lack the wherewithal to make similarly meaningful interventions. Yet if the virus is not defeated in Africa, it will only bounce back to the rest of the world.
Read More Financial Times 25/03/2020
Yemen
Thousands of families displaced by floods
At least 4,625 families have been displaced by flooding in several Yemeni governorates, Anadolu news agency reported on Wednesday. According to the UNHCR, heavy rain fell across southern and eastern Yemen on 24 and 24 March.
Read More Middle East Monitor 02/04/2020
470 inmates freed from detention centres under government control
Yemen’s internationally recognised government on Wednesday released hundreds of prisoners charged with lesser crimes amid fears that the coronavirus could spread through the country’s jails. “More than 470 prisoners were freed from detention facilities in provinces under the legitimate government’s control, such as Dhalea, Al Mahra, Hadramawt, Shabwa, Marib and Taez,” a judiciary source told The National.
Read More The National 02/04/2020
Missiles fired at Riyadh
On March 28, two missiles were fired at the Saudi capital of Riyadh. They were intercepted by Saudi defences, but two Saudis were injured in the falling debris. Another missile was fired at the city of Jazan. This is the first attack on the Saudi capital since last September’s devastating attacks by Iran on the Abqaiq oil refinery centre.
Read More Brooking Institute 30/03/2020
Warring parties in Yemen agree ceasefire to prevent coronavirus outbreak
The warring parties in Yemen have agreed to their first nationwide ceasefire since 2016, in what Saudi Arabia said was an effort to protect the conflict-ravished country from the threat of coronavirus.
Read More Financial Times 26/03/2020
Jack Patterson
Parliamentary Researcher and Coordinator
All-Party Parliamentary Group for Sudan and South Sudan, APPG for Eritrea, and APPG for Yemen
Martin Plaut 
News of Sunday 5 April 2020
(This news are the translation from the published Arabic text)
Several prisoners escaped from )Semble (prison in Eritrea.
Sources reported that, at two o’clock in the afternoon of April 5, 2020, prisoners managed to break the Semble prison located near Asmara airport in Eritrea, and subsequently escaped dozens of prisoners, but the regime summoned special forces from the central region to The security forces and the police have been blockading the neighborhoods (Sembel, Goreida and Sheweit), and heavy gunfire has also been heard in these neighborhoods, while these forces have chased those fleeing the streets of the mentioned neighborhoods and alleys.
The streets were empty of people due to the ban imposed on the spread of the new Krona virus, and that (uniform), the uniform worn by prisoners helped too bottom them, even while trying to hide in the homes of citizens.
It is noteworthy that Eritrea did not respond to the calls of its citizens to demand the release of hundreds of thousands of prisoners in order to protect them from the spread of the new krona virus, and that regional and international humanitarian organizations demanded this, but the Eritrean regime did not give all these calls the slightest attention.
Sembel Prison, alongside (Adi Khawala) Prison, are the two known prisons, while other hundred prisons are underground, and no one knows their locations.
In any case, the Afro-dictatorial regime has not yet responded to the calls of its citizens to demand the release of tenths of thousands of prisoners in order to protect them from the spread of the corona virus, and regional and international humanitarian organizations have demanded this, but the Eritrean regime has not given all these appeals the slightest attention. In addition to the prison (Adi Khawla), the two prisons are known for the accumulation of inmates, and most prisons are underground.
The Constants Bulletin is issued by the Information Secretariat of the Eritrean National Constants Front….
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