The results of Sudan's legislative elections have been delayed and will probably not be published until 30 December, according to the General Election Commission (GEC). Results of the legislative poll and of a vote for the presidency in a simultaneous election had been due for release on 25 December. The elections ran from 13-25 December. A GEC official said publication of results will probably coincide with the presidential announcement on 30 December, AFP said. The GEC said several states had not yet submitted results. A preliminary tally of the presidential poll from several districts showed incumbent Omar al-Bashir winning more than three times the votes for his nearest competitor, former military autocrat Jaafer Nimeri, AFP said. 

A nine-member observer team from the Organisation of Africa Unity (OAU) commended the General Elections Authority for the recently-held legislative and presidential elections. "The arrangements... allowed the Sudanese people, including those outside the country to freely exercise their democratic rights," said an OAU statement issued 23 December. The OAU observer team also said it congratulated "the Sudanese people in general for their maturity, patience and the disciplined manner which they manifested throughout the process." 

According to the OAU, the team had witnessed various aspects of the process, including administrative arrangements, campaigns and poling activities, as well as holding discussions with all five presidential candidates, and other political parties, including those who boycotted the elections. The team "took note of their concerns, such as the handling of the voters' rolls, the airtime accorded by the government television and radio stations, the high proposing and insurance fees charged to sponsors and their candidates." Other complaints had focused on the lack of sufficient resources for the parties to participate effectively, said the OAU. The report said it would submit the reported and observed problems to the General election s Authority. 

Saying the elections marked an "important step towards democratisation", it noted that there would be some "inevitable" logistical challenges in a country of about 30 million. However, there was no specific mention of war-affected areas, like southern Sudan, where many people were unable to cast their ballot or participate in the process. 

Meanwhile, President Omar al-Bashir said that no power-sharing agreement had been signed with the opposition Umma Party. In an interview to al-Jazeera TV, Bashir said dialogue with the Umma Party was on-going but that a number of issues had to be tackled. Leader of the opposition Umma Party, former Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi, recently returned to Sudan, saying he would participate in the national peace process. 

But Bashir confirmed that no agreement had been signed with the Umma Party constituting participation in government - as had previous been reported in some of the local and international press. He said that it was not possible to "wait for the return of the opposition abroad indefinitely", said the official Suna news agency on 24 December. Efforts continued to reach agreement with opposition parties, and to establish a dialogue with the southern-based Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), SUNA said.

The leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), John Garang, has been invited to visit Britain by the British government. The official Sudanese News Agency, SUNA, said the British government had notified the Sudan government that the visit was part of gathering viewpoints on achieving peace in Sudan. The visit, which was originally set for December, had been postponed and was expected to be made next month, said SUNA on 19 December. 

Brigadier Bushra Al-Fadil Azraq, a member of the opposition National Democratic Alliance, returned to Khartoum on Monday after nine years as a member of the opposition in exile, the Sudanese News Agency (SUNA) reported. 

In a press statement on arrival, Azraq stressed the importance of negotiating with the government. He said the government had made an "honest response to the peaceful political project", which would avert "the risk of internationalisation and foreign intervention", according SUNA. The report quoted Azraq as saying the greatest problems facing Sudan were the war in the south and the economic crisis, and that these could only be solved by convening "a national dialogue conference". 

The government welcomed Azraq's return. Dr Abubakr al-Siddiq, a representative of the presidency, said his return was a signioficant boost to the peace and national accord process, SUNA reported. 

The Sudan government has accepted an application by the French oil company Total to invest in oil exploration in Sudan. The minister of energy and mining, Dr Awad Ahmad al-Jaz, authorised Total to operate in any of the"sites marked out for investment", the Sudanese paper 'Al-Ra'y al-Amm', monitored by the BBC, reported on 20 December. 

The minister was speaking after meeting a delegation from Total, which wasin the country seeking investment in oil, said the report.  He went on topraise French investment in gold in Ariab (northeastern Sudan) and Wadial-Shanqir, and in electric power, according to the report. 

Sudan on Tuesday accused Uganda of sending arms to the rebel Sudan thwart Sudan's bid for a seat on the UN Security Council in October. AFP on Tuesday quoted Sudanese External Affairs Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il as saying during a news conference that Uganda had allowed NGOs "unregistered with Sudan or with the UN to move arms and ammunition" from Uganda to the SPLA in southern Sudan. He also accused the Ugandan government of "helping the SPLA to recruit children from Sudanese refugee camps in Uganda", according to AFP. 

Isma'il went on to say that "Uganda implements US strategy in the region", which, he said, was "one of the reasons for the deterioration of relations" between Sudan and Uganda. He said he would neverthless attend a meeting in Libya next January with his Libyan and Ugandan counterparts to discuss the prospects for normalising Sudanese-Ugandan ties under an initiative sponsored by the Carter Centre in the US. However, he pointed out that the Ugandan government had "failed to heed a call by the Ugandan parliament to stop assisting the SPLA". "The bilateral relations will improve only if the Ugandan government positively responds to this call," the agency quoted Isma'il as saying. 

Sudan has complained to the Dutch authorities over its support for a planned Christian radio station. According to the government, the station had links with southern rebels, AFP said. 'Al-Ayyam' newspaper said Sudan's ambassador to the Netherlands, Abd al-Halim Babo, had told Dutch Development Minister Eveline Herfkens that the radio station supported the southern-based Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). Babo claimed that one of the SPLA leaders, Taylor Deng, owned shares in the station. 

But AFP said it was unable to confirm whether the Sudan government had officially lodged a complaint with the Dutch government. The Netherlands acting charge d'affaires in Khartoum, Jan Waltmans, told AFP that his country was helping to finance the New Sudan Council of Churches' radio station, but would not confirm or deny a link between the station and the SPLA. The radio station's launch was announced on 14 December. According to Waltmans, the station's agreement with the Dutch provided for closure if it broadcast pro-rebel or anti-government propaganda. "We want the station to be neutral," Waltmans told AFP.

Two more Sudanese lawyers have been detained in connection with the arrest of seven leading opposition politicians in a meeting with a US diplomat earlier this month. The opposition National Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (NARD) said Sa'ati Muhammad al-Hajj and Hadi Ahmad Uthman, both members of NARD, had been arrested last week, AFP said. Hajj was reportedly arrested from his office Sunday morning, while Uthman had been arrested three days earlier, sources told AFP. No official reason has been given for their arrest. The arrests brought to four the number of opposition lawyers detained since 6 December when security forces broke up the meeting with the diplomat, who was later expelled.

The government army on Wednesday "liberated" the Kololo, Daloka and Saq al-Damam areas, all in the western mountains of southern Kordofan in central Sudan, from rebel forces. The claim was made by the official spokesman of the armed forces, Lt-Gen Muhammad Uthman Yasin, as quoted by Sudanese television on Thursday. "He said the outlaws incurred massive losses... Their troops fled. Our forces captured heavy weapons, artillery and machine guns from the rebel movement [Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, SPLM/A]," according to the report. The army had also freed "9,000 citizens who had been captured by the rebel movement", who "were being used for domestic purposes and had been forced to serve the rebels," Yasin was quoted as saying. There has been no independent confirmation of this report. 

On the evening of 8 December, a group of worshippers praying at a mosque in Al-Jarrafah village in Kariri Province, north of Omdurman, were subjected to automatic fire, which killed 20 of them and wounded about 40 others, according to Sudanese television, reporting the incident the same evening.  The report quoted two eyewitnesses, one of the congregation and a policemen, as saying there had been several attackers. The policeman, Amin Idris Umar, described them as "wearing black caftans and waistcoats". However, a statement confirming the incident from the official police spokesman, Police Maj-Gen Uthman Ya'qub, quoted by state television on Saturday, said there had been only one attacker. Naming him as Abbas al-Baqir Abbas, the statement said that after the firing commenced, "police surrounded the area, and the culprit exchanged fire with the police, injuring one policeman. The police fired back at the culprit, who had refused to surrender, killing him." 

A report carried by the Panafrican News Agency, PANA, also on Saturday, gave the casualty figures as 21 killed and 55 wounded. It quoted Uthman Ya'qub as saying that Abbas, as a member of the Takfir wa'l-Hijrah sect, had been hostile towards the worshippers at the mosque, who belong to the Ansar al-Sunnah ['Upholders of Orthodoxy'] sect. According to Ya'qub, the Ansar al-Sunnah "preaches the purging of infidel innovations", while the Takfir wa'l-Hijrah "considers contemporary Muslim society infidel" and that it "should be brought back to true Islam by force". PANA reported that the incident was the third of its kind involving members of the two sects since 1996. 

The bombing of civilian and humanitarian targets by the Sudanese government aircraft has doubled this year as compared to last, according to a statement released by the US Committee for Refugees (USCR) in Washington DC on Wednesday. Sudanese air force planes had attacked civilian and humanitarian 132 times this year as compared to 65 times last year, the statement said. Over the past four years Sudanese aircraft had bombed non-military targets 259 times, the report added. The latest attack, on Friday 8 December, the fifth on southern Sudan this month, targeted the southern village of Yomciir, killing two people, one of them an aid worker, according to the statement. 

The statement accused the international community of "failing to take a forceful action" against the government of Sudan. The statement quoted Roger Winter, the executive director of the USCR, as urging the UN to "suspend the government of Sudan for its continuing egregious violations of international law and of the UN Charter". 

Sudan's 10-day long elections began on Wednesday with polling stations opening their doors at 9:00 a.m. (local). The Sudan News Agency, SUNA, reported that the elections had begun "all over Sudan [on] Wednesday, except for the three southern states, for electing a new president for Sudan and 270 members in the new National Assembly out of a total [number of] seats of 360. Some 90 delegates are elected via constituencies for women, workers, farmers and businessmen." The report said that "some 12 million Sudanese voters went to the polls to elect a new president for Sudan from five candidates" whom it named as Lt-Gen Umar al-Bashir, the incumbent president, Field Marshal Ja'far Muhammad Numayri, Sudan's president from 1969 to 1985, Dr Malik Husayn, Dr Samaw'il Uthman Mansur and Mahmud Muhammad Juha. 

SUNA quoted the chairman of Khartoum State's electoral committee, Bushra Ahmad al-Shaykh, as saying that during a tour of the state's polling stations on Wednesday "he saw hundreds of citizens rushing to vote in the elections". 

Agencies have told a very different story. The elections are taking place with all the main opposition parties boycotting it. Turnout was very low in Khartoum, with some polling stations remaining empty, according to the Associated Press (AP). People in Khartoum seemed indifferent to the whole process, because they were certain Bashir would win, according to AP. The agency said there was "little doubt" that Bashir and his ruling National Congress party would win. 

Voting was not taking place in the three southern states because they are under the control of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army. SPLM/A's Nairobi spokesman, Samson Kwaje, told IRIN on Tuesday that this area "constitutes 45 percent of the country's total territory". It also included the east of the country, and although the SPLM/A was not controlling Kassala, the town was now "deserted".

Agencies noted that none of the main opposition groupings were participating in the elections. Kwaje told IRIN that the eight parties brought together by the umbrella National Democratic Alliance, together with the Ummah Party of Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi (who was the prime minister of the government Bashir overthrew in 1989) and the Democratic Unionist Party of Muhammad Uthman al-Mirghani, "represent 90 per cent of the electorate in Sudan". The fact that the elections involved the remaining 10 percent rendered them "meaningless", according to Kwaje. 

The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) has described the peace agreement signed by Eritrea and Ethiopia in Algiers on Tuesday as "a positive step towards bringing peace and stability to the region", according to an OLF statement on the subject, received by IRIN on Thursday. "We feel this is a good step, but we would like the Ethiopian government to also look at the internal situation," OLF spokesman Lencho Bati told IRIN. The war could have been averted had the Tigray People's Liberation Front/Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (TPLF/EPRDF) persevered with the political process it embarked on in 1991, according to the rebel group's statement. 

Bati said that after the overthrow of the former military leader of Ethiopia, Mengistu Haile Mariam, there had been an opportunity for "a new vision in the Horn of Africa", but it was lost because the TPLF/EPRDF had failed to address basic political problems, resorting instead to "marginalising the OLF" and Eritreans. Calling the Eritrea-Ethiopia conflict "one of several meaningless wars" in the Horn, the statement urged the international community to address "the root causes" of these problems. The political policies pursued by some of the countries in the region were contributing to underdevelopment, instability and political crisis, it said.

The international community should take the opportunity arising out of the signing of the agreement to address the "chronic political problems of Ethiopia", this being the only way to bring a lasting peace and stability to the region, the OLF stated. What prompted the Ethiopian government to sign the agreement had been the "deteriorating internal economic, political, and military situation", it said. 

In an address to mark Human Rights Day on Wednesday, US President Bill Clinton singled out Sudan as guilty of human rights atrocities, news agencies reported. Clinton, who also criticised Afghanistan and China, paid tribute to human rights activists, "who have done so much to publicise the atrocities of Sudan". He said: "America must continue to press for an end to these egregious practices and make clear that the Sudanese government cannot join the community of nations until fundamental changes are made on these fronts." Sudan, for its part, has asked the UN Security Council to reprimand the US over the unauthorised visit to southern Sudan last month by US Assistant Secretary of State Susan Rice. In a letter to the Security Council, Sudan said the visit was a deliberate offence. 

The government of Sudan has arrested seven opposition leaders and ordered the expulsion of an American diplomat, accusing the leaders of planning an armed uprising. Sudan ordered the expulsion of the diplomat, Glen Warren, on Thursday, accusing him of discussing security issues with dissidents. He was detained briefly on Wednesday for observing a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), an umbrella organisation for opposition groups, AP said. Seven Sudanese opposition leaders were arrested and held, and an official statement was issued saying they were "planning an uprising to be backed by armed groups". Ghazi Sulayman, a lawyer and member of the NDA, said the government knew about the meeting, but that the detentions were "tailored by security agencies" to divert attention from "sham elections", AP said. 

Government planes carried out two more bombing raids in Bahr al-Ghazal, southern Sudan, on Monday morning. Humanitarian sources told IRIN that two villages northeast of Yirol were hit, in an area not previously targeted.  In the first raid, on a village about 15 km from Yirol, three bombs were dropped, killing two people and injuring three others. The second raid targeted a village about 18 km from Yirol. Five bombs were dropped, but there have been no reports of deaths or injuries from humanitarian contacts in the area, the source said. 

Election campaigning by opposition candidates for parliamentary and presidential elections, planned to take place between 11 and 20 December, will go ahead without interference from the security forces, according to the authorities in Khartoum. Police Maj-Gen Muhammad Ahmad Afi said on state television that security forces would be "very tolerant". Afi said, in an interview monitored by the BBC on 5 December, that the police had offered the candidates "all the opportunities to put forward their election manifestoes and their views without interference". Campaigning in the presidential elections was intensifying, with candidates addressing public rallies and touring with election programmes, state media reported. 

An eight-person observer team from the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) arrived in Khartoum on Wednesday to monitor the presidential and parliamentary elections, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) reported. It said the team was led by Ambassador Pascal Gayama, former OAU assistant secretary-general. All the main opposition parties are boycotting the polls and have asked the Supreme Court to postpone the elections, on grounds that the present political situation does not allow for a fair and democratic process. Sudan's parliament was dissolved a year ago by President Umar al-Bashir and a state of emergency remains in force. On Thursday, Sudanese television, monitored by the BBC, quoted the chairman of the electoral commission, Abd al-Mun'im al-Zayn al-Nahhas, as saying the elections would now commence on 13 December, a postponement of two days. 

Sudanese First Vice-President Ali Uthman Muhammad Taha was due in the Eritrean capital on Monday, Asmara, Omdurman radio reported that day. The report said he "will hold talks with Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki within the framework of consultations and efforts being made to strengthen bilateral relations and bolster means of cooperation between Sudan and Eritrea". 

President Umar al-Bashir of Sudan has said that Eritrea is continuing to back Sudanese rebels. According to Bashir, rebels were massing on the common border, and included Eritrean soldiers, the Sudanese news agency, SUNA, reported on Monday. The Secretary-General of the National Congress (Sudan's ruling party), Prof Ibrahim Ahmad Umar, said in an interview with SUNA that the presence of rebel troops on the Sudan-Eritrea border was hampering moves to normalise relations between the two countries. He said there had been positive changes in bilateral relations, but unresolved issues remained. In the interview, published on Tuesday, he said Sudan rejected any military action against its territory and regarded Eritrea's support for the SPLA as "hostile".

Sudan's relations with Ethiopia are moving towards wider horizons of strategic cooperation the political and economic fields. This view was expressed by Uthman al-Sayyid, the Sudanese ambassador to Ethiopia, during an interview with SUNA on Saturday.  The ambassador said that, during their meeting on the fringes of the recent Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) summit in Khartoum, President Umar al-Bashir and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had agreed that work should begin on drafting a programme to strengthen bilateral relations in the political, economic and commercial fields. Sayyid said Meles had announced Ethiopia's decision to import gas and other petroleum products from Sudan. Sudan and Ethiopia was also expected to sign an agreement to abolish customs dues on bilateral commodity exchanges, and Sudanese entrepreneurs were being encouraged to invest in Ethiopia. The ambassador also said Ethiopia would make use of the harbour facilities at Port Sudan (in north eastern Sudan).

He went on to say that in the near future there would be exchanges of visits by senior officials from the Sudanese ruling party, the NC, and its counterpart, the Ethiopian People's Democratic Revolutionary Front (EPRDF). Within the next few days, moreover, a meeting of the Ethiopian-Sudanese joint border committee was due to be held in the capital of Amhara State (Gonder), Sayyid was quoted by Suna as saying. 

In an address to mark Human Rights Day on Wednesday, US President Bill Clinton singled out Sudan as being guilty of human rights atrocities, news agencies reported. Clinton, who also criticised Afghanistan and China is his speech, paid tribute to human rights activists "who have done so much to publicise the atrocities of Sudan". He said: "America must continue to press for an end to these egregious practices and make clear that the Sudanese government cannot join the community of nations until fundamental changes are made on these fronts." Sudan, for its part, has asked the UN Security Council to reprimand the US over the unauthorised visit to southern Sudan last month by US Assistant Secretary of State Susan Rice. In a letter to the Security Council, Sudan said the visit was a deliberate offence. 

An eight-person observer team from the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) arrived in Khartoum on Wednesday to monitor the presidential and parliamentary elections due to take place from 11 to 20 December, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) reported. It said the team was led by Ambassador Pascal Gayama, former OAU Assistant Secretary-General. All the main opposition parties are boycotting the polls and have asked the Supreme Court to postpone the elections, on grounds that the present political situation does not allow for a fair and democratic process. Sudan's parliament was dissolved a year ago by President Umar al-Bashir and a state of emergency remains in force. The election results are due to be declared in February. 

The European Union (EU) pledged 15 million euros ($13.2 million) to Sudan on Wednesday for humanitarian and developmental programmes, AFP reported. The aid was offered for rehabilitation projects on an unconditional basis. The grant follows a year of dialogue between the Sudanese government and the EU on issues such as human rights, democracy, terrorism and foreign relations, aimed at normalising relations. 

The government of Sudan has asked the UN Security Council to reprimand the US over the unauthorised visit by a US diplomat to southern Sudan. The letter, sent to the Security Council by Sudanese Minister of External Relations Mustafa Uthman Isma'il, said the visit by Assistant Secretary of State Susan Rice violated "the domestic laws and international norms that govern the movement of persons between states". It said that, without an official visa, the visit was "incompatible with the Charter of the United Nations and all the domestic and international enactments that regulate... the movement of persons". 

Protesting against the visit to rebel-held areas in southern Sudan, the letter said the move was made while Sudan was hosting a regional summit for the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), at which Sudan peace talks were at the top of the agenda. The US timing was "irresponsible" and deliberately chosen to cause offence, the letter said. The bulk of the letter to the Security Council emphasised allegations by the government of Sudan that the US government was supporting the southern-based Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). It stressed "the Sudan's repeated assertions that the United States was biased, that it was providing the rebel movement with financial and logistic support and that it was, therefore, unfit to play the role of mediator in the efforts to bring about peace". 

Election campaigning by opposition candidates for parliamentary and presidential elections planned for 11 December will go ahead without interference from the security forces, according to the authorities in Khartoum. Police Maj-Gen Muhammad Ahmad Afi said on state television that security forces would be "very tolerant". Afi said, in an interview monitored by the BBC on 5 December, that the police had offered the candidates "all the opportunities to put forward their election manifestoes and their views without interference". Campaigning in the presidential elections was intensifying, with candidates addressing public rallies and touring with election programmes, state media reported. 

President Umar al-Bashir of Sudan has said that Eritrea is continuing to back Sudanese rebels. According to Bashir, rebels were massing on the common border, and included Eritrean soldiers, the Sudanese news agency, SUNA, reported on Monday. 

The Secretary-General of the National Congress (ruling party), Prof Ibrahim Ahmad Umar, said in an interview with SUNA that the presence of rebel troops on the Sudan-Eritrea border was hampering moves to normalise relations between the two countries. He said there had been positive changes in bilateral relations, but unresolved issues remained. In the interview, published on Tuesday, he said Sudan rejected any military action against its territory and regarded Eritrea's support for the SPLA as "hostile". 

The Ethiopian government says it has agreed to send a delegation to Algeria on 12 December in connection with ongoing peace negotiations with Eritrea, at the invitation of Algerian President Abdulaziz Bouteflika. However, diplomatic sources told IRIN that there was no stated commitment on the part of Ethiopia to sign a peace agreement. UN sources also say there has been no official confirmation of Ethiopia's commitment to sign. 

Since the cessation of hostilities accord, signed by Ethiopia and Eritrea on 18 June, the two sides have held inconclusive "proximity talks" – which involve facilitators shuttling between representatives from the two sides in different rooms. However, a military meeting held in Nairobi by the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) on Saturday, saw military leaders from the two countries agree on key issues. 

The Eritrean government said on Monday that it had accepted the invitation to participate in the signing ceremony in Algiers, which would be attended "by senior officials from the US, the European Union, the United Nations and the Organisation of African Unity". 

Government planes carried out two more bombing raids in Bahr al-Ghazal, southern Sudan, on Monday morning. Humanitarian sources told IRIN that two villages northeast of Yirol were hit, in an area not previously targeted. In the first raid, on a village about 15 km from Yirol, three bombs were dropped, killing two people and injuring three others. The second raid targeted a village about 18 km from Yirol. Five bombs were dropped, but there have been no reports of deaths or injuries from humanitarian contacts in the area, the source said. 

About 20,000 Sudanese Catholic refugees accommodated at the Kakuma camp, northwestern Kenya, will switch diocese. From January 2001, the refugees will be administered by the Kenyan diocese of Lodwar, northern Kenya. Since the establishment of the camp in 1992 they were under the administration of the diocese of Rumbek, Bahr el Ghazal, headed by Bishop Caesar Mazzolari. The Sudan Catholic Information Office (SCIO), said on Tuesday that Bishop Mazzolari had conveyed news of this change to the new bishop of Lodwar, Dr Patrick Harrington, during a confirmation service at the camp as his last official function there. 

Rumbek diocese had, during its tenure, built a hall with solar-powered lighting where students could study after dark, as well as other church-related, structures. SCIO quoted Bishop Mazzolari as saying his diocese would not ask for any compensation for any of the assets it would be handing over to the new administration. "Everything we did here was for the people of God," he said. The camp houses a total of about 85,000 refugees, most of whom are Sudanese, with the remainder from Somalia, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and the DRC.

Meanwhile, the Ethiopian and Eritrean leaders said they had agreed to a final peace pact to formally end the border war. An agreement, brokered by US envoy Anthony Lake and the OAU, was expected to be signed in Algiers on 12 December, news agencies said. Details of the pact, which include formal demarcation of the disputed border, were confirmed in a letter US President Bill Clinton sent to the leaders of both countries on 1 December. 

Official statements released by the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments said on Monday that a "comprehensive" peace agreement would be signed in Algiers on 12 December. 

Sudan's relations with Ethiopia are moving towards wider horizons of strategic cooperation the political and economic fields. This view was expressed by Uthman al-Sayyid, the Sudanese ambassador to Ethiopia, during an interview with the Sudanese News Agency, Suna, on Saturday.  The ambassador said that, during their meeting on the fringes of the recent Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) summit in Khartoum, Presidents Umar al-Bashir and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had agreed that work should begin on drafting a programme to strengthen bilateral relations in the political, economic and commercial fields. Sayyid said Meles had announced Ethiopia's decision to import gas and other petroleum products from Sudan. Sudan and Ethiopia was also expected to sign an agreement to abolish customs dues on bilateral commodity exchanges, and Sudanese entrepreneurs were being encouraged to invest in Ethiopia. The ambassador also said Ethiopia would make use of the harbour facilities at Port Sudan (in northeastern Sudan). 

He went on to say that in the near future there would be exchanges of visits by senior officials from the Sudanese ruling party, the National Congress (NC), and its counterpart in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian People's Democratic Revolutionary Front (EPRDF). Within the next few days, moreover, a meeting of the Ethiopian-Sudanese joint border committee was due to be held in the capital of Amhara State (Gonder). Another meeting of the committee, to be held in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, was scheduled for April 2001, Sayyid was quoted by Suna as saying. 

First Vice-President Ali Uthman Muhammad Taha was due in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, Omdurman radio reported on Monday. The report said that  he "will hold talks with Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki within the framework of consultations and efforts being made to strengthen bilateral  relations and bolster means of cooperation between Sudan and Eritrea". Earlier, on Saturday, the Sudanese News Agency, Suna, quoted the secretary-general of the ruling party, the National Congress (NC), as saying that the visit "affirms Sudan's keenness to normalise its relations with Eritrea". It added there was "no contradiction between the military defence of the homeland and normalising relations with the neighbouring countries."

Court officials in Sudan said the Supreme Court would consider a suit filed by the opposition alliance demanding the postponement of this month's general elections, the BBC reported on Sunday. A lawyer for the opposition National Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy, Ghazi Sulayman, said the suit argued that the General Election Commission (GEC) could not conduct the forthcoming elections in the absence of a parliament, as it was answerable to both the parliament and the president. Parliament was dissolved a year ago (on 12 December) by President Umar al-Bashir. A Supreme Court judge said a copy of the suit had been sent to the GEC and a hearing would be held on Wednesday. Sudan's presidential and general elections are scheduled to be held from 11 to 20 December, the report said. 

The same court had also decided to study a case filed by another lawyer, Mahmud Sha'rani, contesting the GEC's endorsement of President Umar al-Bashir and former President Ja'far Numayri as presidential candidates, AFP reported on Sunday. The lawyer had complained "that Bashir, as incumbent president, could order all state employees to vote for him, while slamming Numayri's nomination as a 'provocative insult' to the Sudanese people, who rose in a popular uprising and overthrew him in 1985". 

An 11-member delegation from the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), led by the organisation's former secretary-general, Ambassador Gayama, is due to arrive in Khartoum on Tuesday to observe the presidential and presidential elections. This was reported to the Sudanese News Agency, Suna, by the Sudanese ambassador to Ethiopia, Uthman al-Sayyid, on Tuesday. He said that the delegation "will tour all the [26] states in Sudan to observe the electoral process towards submitting a report on its mission to the OAU secretary-general, Dr Salim Ahmed Salim". 

The State of Qatar has resumed imports of meat from Sudan. The importations have been resumed after a regional ban was imposed by the Gulf States due to Rift Valley fever. The undersecretary of the Sudanese Ministry of Livestock, Dr Muhammad al-Jabalabi, said that Sudan was continuing its meat exports to Saudi Arabia and Jordan, Sudanese television said on 1 December. Jabalabi also said there were "extensive contacts" between Sudanese meat exporters and the Saudi Arabian authorities with a view on lifting the ban on Sudanese exports of live animals "after Rift Valley fever had been put under control". 

The Sudanese government has written to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to protest against the visit to the country by US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Susan Rice, Omdurman radio reported on Monday. The station quoted External Relations Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il as describing Rice's visit to southern Sudan "without the official permission of the government" as "a violation of Sudan's national sovereignty". Isma'il said he had sent copies of the protest note to the secretaries-general of the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Conference and the Organisation of African Unity, the report added. 

Sudanese government planes carried out several bombing raids in the Eastern Equatoria region at the weekend, demolishing part of a school and causing people to flee in panic, humanitarian sources said on Monday.  The attacks began on Friday in Twic county, when 14 bombs were dropped in three raids, hitting the Panlit missionary school. Two classrooms were demolished and most of the 700 children at the school fled into the bush in panic or returned to their villages. A spokesman for the Sudan Production Aid (SUPRAID) non-governmental organisation, which works in the area, told IRIN the children were slowly trickling back from the bush, but they were too afraid to resume classes. On Saturday, more bombing raids took place near Turalei, causing mass panic. One old lady died of shock, but no other casualties have yet been reported. [For full story, see separate IRIN item of 27 November, headlined "Schoolchildren flee  government bombing raids"]

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has welcomed the return to Sudan of opposition leader al-Sadiq al-Mahdi of the opposition Ummah party, the official Sudanese news agency reported on Friday, 24 November. Bashir said the ruling National Congress party and Ummah were close to an agreement, and affirmed that al-Mahdi could participate in the political life of the country in the government or in opposition, SUNA stated. Al-Mahdi met with Bashir on Saturday and discussed how to end the civil war in Sudan, Reuters news agency reported. The Ummah party leader, deposed by Bashir, returned to Sudan on Thursday after a four-year exile in Eritrea and Egypt.

The cessation of hostilities between Ethiopia and Eritrea is holding, but does not constitute either a ceasefire or a negotiated peace settlement. Special Representative of the Secretary-General Legwaila Joseph Legwaila told reporters during a visit to Eritrea that the cessation of hostilities functioned like a ceasefire while the two parties engaged in dialogue, and compared it very favourably to other regional ceasefires. "This one is almost a perfect cessation of hostilities," he said. 

The Special Representative of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) said it had taken a lot of discipline for both sides to maintain the agreement signed on 18 June because the opposing forces were "so close in certain areas... as to shout at each other, but they have not shot at each other." Legwaila said he did not doubt that the two leaders were genuine in their commitment to the peace process, but urged them to resolve the dispute, exchange political prisoners and deportees, and start normalising the situation between the two countries.

All parties in Sudan have been encouraged to show more seriousness in efforts to bring peace. The regional Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) ministerial council, meeting in Khartoum, urged the IGAD committee to accelerate its efforts to reach a peaceful solution in Sudan, the official SUNA news agency said on 22 November. The draft decision, presented by Kenya, was approved in the second session of the ministerial council on Wednesday. Sudanese External Relations Minister Dr Mustafa Uthman Isma'il said in a press statement carried by SUNA that the Kenyan foreign minister had presented the report, which praised the role of IGAD and its partners for mediating talks between the government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). According to Ismai'l, the ministerial meeting also discussed the joint Libyan-Egyptian initiative, and stressed the need for coordination between the two peace initiatives. 

The last round of peace talks mediated by IGAD in Kenya in October proved inconclusive. 

US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Susan Rice said the government of Sudan should immediately halt the bombing of civilian targets. She made the remarks after a two-day visit to southern Sudan. Rice also called on the government to "stop the heinous practice of slavery", said a report made available to IRIN by the US Department of State. Despite promises by the government to reform its policies and improve its human rights record, there was "precious little evidence" to support its claims, said Rice. The United States continues to have in place unilateral economic sanctions against Sudan and UN Security Council sanctions on Sudan - over accusations of hosting terrorists - remain, said the report. Rice said the US would continue its support for people in Sudan, and was the country largest humanitarian donor, having contributed more than US $1,000 million in the last ten years. 

The visit of Rice to southern Sudan resulted in the withdrawal of visas for US diplomats by the government in protest that she made the visit without a visa. 

Somalia has taken up its seat at the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) summit for the first time in more than a decade of civil strife. Interim Somali President Abdiqassim Salad Hassan arrived in Khartoum on 23 November, sources close to the Somali government told IRIN. Members of the Somali cabinet travelled with the president, including Foreign Minister Ismail Mahmud Hurre 'Buba'. The summit will begin on Thursday at ministerial level on Thursday.  Ethiopia was until very recently opposed to the seating of the transitional government at the IGAD summit, diplomatic sources told IRIN. It has called for the new government to involve Somali factions who boycotted the Djibouti-hosted talks which elected the new government.

The Sudanese government said it had barred the US chargé d'affaires from entering the country in protest at a visit by US Assistant Secretary of State of African Affairs Susan Rice to southern Sudan. Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail said Rice had visited southern Sudan from Nairobi without obtaining an official permit from the Khartoum government, news agencies reported on Tuesday. The government cancelled multiple entry visas for chargé d'affaires Raymond Brown, presently in Nairobi, and other US diplomats, the Sudanese daily Al-Sahafi Al Dawli said. The foreign minister later told reporters in Khartoum that Rice had applied for a visa which was rejected, and proceeded anyway, AFP said . Ismail charged that Rice was being deliberately misleading by attempting to "demonstrate to the world" that slavery existed in Sudan, AFP said. He added that the areas under government control were "open to every official to acquaint himself of the situation there". 

A US State Department spokesman said that Sudan's retaliatory revocation of visas was "unfortunate" and unwarranted, news agencies later reported. The spokesman told reporters that Rice did not have a visa when she visited southern Sudan to look into slavery and other humanitarian matters, but said Khartoum had been informed of her visit. "She used procedures followed by past visitors, including American officials and international relief personnel", he told AFP. Rice met with "former slaves" and had "no doubt that slavery continues to exist", said the spokesman. 

Rice visited Marial, western Bahr el Ghazal, and Lui hospital in Western Equatoria, southern Sudan, humanitarian sources told IRIN. 

A supervisor for the polio vaccination campaign in Sudan was killed during a bombing raid in Parajok, Torit, eastern Equatoria on 22 October. Humanitarian sources told IRIN that the killing - which has just come to light - happened during the national immunisation campaign when the government and rebel factions agreed to a "period of tranquillity". Mark Odera was a local volunteer and supervisor, working for the polio campaign carried out in Parajok under the World Health Organisation (WHO). According to the source, Odera was "delivering details of the results of the campaign" when he was killed. During the "period of tranquillity", the Sudanese government continued to bomb southern Sudan, which UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy condemned as "a violation". 

Some 400 soldiers from Sudan's opposition Umma Party have crossed the border from Eritrea and returned to Sudan's eastern Kasala region. Umma spokesman Abdul Rasoul el Nur told reporters in Kasala that the returning Umma soldiers would be moved to a camp in Fao region, west of Kasala, Panafrican News Agency (PANA) said. The contingent of some 400 men constitutes the last returning batch of Umma soldiers, allied to former Prime Minister Sadik el Mahdi. They have agreed to return to Sudan based on an accord for further negotiation of a return to democratic rule in Sudan, signed late 1999. In July, a similar group closed its camps in Ethiopia and returned to Sudan, PANA said. The "declaration of principles" accord between Mahdi and the government was brokered by authorities in Djibouti. A number of Umma party leaders, including General Secretary Omar Nur el Dayim, have returned to the country and started talks with government representatives. Mahdi has withdrawn from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and said he would return from exile later this month. 

Sudanese government planes have again bombed the Western Equatoria market town of Yei, southern Sudan, on Monday afternoon, according to humanitarian and media reports. Norwegian Peoples Aid (NPA), an aid organisation working in the area, told the BBC that 18 people died in the attack, and more than 50 were injured. According to NPA spokesman Dan Eiffe, the planes dropped 14 bombs in a market area. "Apparently the bombs landed smack in the middle of a market place. It is carnage," he told the BBC.

The attack on Yei comes after complaints by international organisations and aid agencies that the Sudanese government has targeted civilian and humanitarian sites in a bombing campaign in southern Sudan. Yei, Western Equatoria, was described by the BBC as one of the biggest strongholds of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). 

The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has been meeting in Khartoum since Saturday, 18 November, with experts on economics, agriculture and politics taking part, the official Sudanese news agency SUNA said. IGAD Executive Director Dr Atallah al-Bashir said the meeting would "serve as a preparatory meeting for IGAD's ministerial meeting and the IGAD summit," the report stated. Delegates would also discuss food security projects and ways to implement them, the agency added. The meeting is being attended by representatives from IGAD member states: Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. 

UN Security Council Resolution 1054 of 26 April 1996 called on all international and regional organisations not to convene any conferences in Sudan, in protest at the country's non-compliance with efforts to find those responsible for an attempt on the life of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during a visit to Ethiopia in 1995, and its alleged sponsorship of international terrorism. 

East African leaders plan to meet in the Khartoum to discuss the next round of Sudanese peace talks. Hamad Bashir, the IGAD executive secretary, told journalists that the meeting in Khartoum would review an IGAD proposal on solving the problems in southern Sudan and ending the armed conflict, AFP said. Several inconclusive rounds of negotiations between representatives of the Sudan government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) have been held under the auspices of IGAD in Nairobi. Hamad Bashir arrived in Khartoum on Tuesday at the head of a delegation to make preparations for the IGAD-sponsored summit scheduled for 23 November, AFP said. He told the Sudanese press that IGAD had no objection to mediation bids from other parties, and that an offer by the US to host peace negotiations had been welcomed. 

The governor of Kassala State, eastern Sudan, said more than 1,000 southern rebels carried out the attack on Kassala. Ibrahim Mahmud Hamid said in an emergency session held by the legislative council of Kassala State that there had been a total of 52 military and civilian deaths, according to the official news agency, SUNA. The many wounded in the attack had received treatment at a number of hospitals. According to the governor, "captured rebel elements" had revealed that their plan was to overrun the regional military headquarters. He said the SPLA had planned to stir up "havoc and terror" by looting the marketplace, private companies and banks. According to the SUNA report issued 14 November, the attackers had also planned to blow up the Qash bridge, destroy the water supply system and power plant and capture Kassala State radio. 

Meanwhile, Minister of National Defence Bakri Hasan Salih has visited the Red Sea area and met officers and troops. Travelling with a delegation from the general command of the armed forces, the minister praised the forces for ridding the area of "aggressors", Sudanese state television said.

Former Sudanese Prime Minister Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi plans to return to Sudan next week. He announced his plans to foreign journalists in Cairo on Wednesday. However, he said he would not participate in next month's parliamentary and presidential elections, which he called "a one-team football game", according to Reuters. He told journalists the elections were "a non-event" and that his opposition Ummah Party would boycott them. According to Mahdi, democracy should be restored to Sudan through negotiations, while and political mobilisation would serve to bring pressure to bear on the government. His return will end four years of exile. Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi was overthrown in 1989 in a military coup led by the current president, Umar al-Bashir. He spent almost seven years either in jail or under house arrest, then fled to Eritrea in December 1996. 

Sudan reportedly has the largest number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in the world, with estimates of about 4 million. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said in a report made available to IRIN that the 30-year old conflict in Sudan had gone through several phases and had created a complex IDP situation with different causes of displacement in different regions of the country. "People have become displaced both by the armed conflict and by natural disasters, including temporary displacement caused by flooding... Traditional nomadic migration patterns and large groups of the general population on the move in search of emergency assistance complicate assessments of the IDP situation," said the report. The IDP situation has worsened since 1998 when a major humanitarian disaster was coupled with fighting in and around the main city of Wau, in Bahr al-Ghazal. The report also mentions the documentation of "gross human rights violations" in areas in which foreign oil companies have exploration rights. 

Updated information released by the Global IDP Database of the NRC said UN estimates for government-controlled areas suggested there were some 1.8 million IDPs in Khartoum State, 500,000 in the east and the transition zone, and 300,000 in the southern states.  According to the report, "systematic data for IDPs in opposition-held southern areas is not available". But USAID figures from a survey in 1994 confirm the presence of 1.5 million IDPs in the southern sectors, said the report. The main causes of displacement listed in the report include armed factions, tribal militias, opposition divisions, exposure to military activity, and attacks on civilian settlements. 

The Sudanese government has asked non-governmental relief organisations to temporarily suspend activities in the eastern border town of Kassala. The state minister of relief, Chol Deng, was reported by the state media as saying the move was necessary for security reasons. A large number of local, non-governmental and international aid agencies work in Kassala, near the Eritrean border, providing assistance for thousands of refugees at a number of camps. 

A UNHCR spokesman said in Geneva on Friday that the agency had relocated virtually all its local and international staff from Kassala to Showak, further inland, after Kassala came under artillery fire before dawn last Wednesday. According to the spokesman, shells exploded in the immediate vicinity of the UNHCR office. During the attack, plainclothes Sudanese army officers raided the UNHCR office, detained two local staff and seized communications equipment. Both have since been released, said the spokesman. UNHCR was assisting an estimated 27,000 Eritrean refugees in the Kassala area and, because of a registration process, had "an unusually large number of staff in Kassala at the time".

Sudanese authorities are investigating the attack on Kassala, where more than 130 people were killed in fighting between government forces and rebels on Wednesday. Commissioner of Kassala province Mohammad Yusuf said on state television on 9 November that 52 civilians and soldiers had been killed in the fighting. State media reports said 80 fighters from the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) were also killed, and state television showed bodies of the rebels. The commissioner said 433 civilians and soldiers had been wounded in the battle for the town, but that it was now back in the hands of the government. "There is complete calm, stability and security in Kassala and the surrounding areas," Yusuf said. State television showed many houses and public office buildings that had been completely or partly destroyed in the fighting. 

The Sudanese authorities would determine whether government forces had failed to carry out their duty effectively, news agencies and local newspapers said at the weekend. According to local news reports, Sudanese security forces were still conducting operations to flush any remaining rebels out of the border town.

A spokesman for the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) confirmed from the Eritrean capital, Asmara, that the Sudanese government had regained control of Kassala, eastern Sudan. Spokesman Yasir Arman said NDA forces had "withdrawn" on Thursday morning. More than 400 government soldiers had been killed, claimed the spokesman, and military garrisons and command posts around Kassala had been "demolished". He said NDA forces had shot down two helicopter gunships and captured 13 tanks and more than 2,000 rifles. The NDA links northern opposition groups with the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), and has an office in Asmara, Eritrea. 

Two people were killed and 11 people injured in a renewed bombing of Narus, southern Sudan, on 9 November. A statement issued by the Diocese of Torit said two people were killed, and four women and seven men seriously injured when an Antonov plan dropped 10 bombs on two locations in Narus. The injured people were immediately evacuated to ICRC Lopiding Hospital in Lokichoggio, northern Kenya, by the African Medical Research Educational Fund (AMREF).

The New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC) called on the international community to take action against the government of Sudan over recent bombings and human rights violations. In a meeting in Nairobi, 6-8 November, the NSCC executive committee met with international partners and issued a statement condemning the bombings and abuses related to the exploitation of oil. Participants in the Nairobi workshop said they "strongly condemned the bombing of civilians, hospitals, schools, NGO compounds, food distribution centres and markets". They urged the UN Security Council to pass a resolution to declare a military no-fly zone over south Sudan, southern Blue Nile and southern Kordofan. It also condemned "human rights violations related to the exploitation of oil", saying many people had been killed, tens of thousands had been displaced, with frequent air raids reported.  "The sharing of resources, especially oil, has been identified as one of the root causes of the 17 year war," sa! id!   the statement. It called on the government and the oil companies to immediately suspend all oil-related action "until such time that there is a peace agreement". 

An agreement to explore and produce oil in Malut, southern Sudan, was signed on 11 November between the ministry of energy and mining and a group of companies represented in the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation, the Khalij-Sudan Company, the Sudanese Petroleum Company, and an Emirates company. The area involved is estimated to be about 75,000 sq km, Sudanese state media reported. Sudanese Minister of energy and mining, Dr Awad Ahmad al-Jaz, signed the agreement on behalf of the government and emphasised that Sudan welcomed all investors. The Gulf companies involved hold a 46 percent stake in the investment, Reuters said. The Chinese company has 23 percent, and two Sudanese companies, Al Than and Sudapet, hold 23 percent and eight percent respectively. Sudan produces about 185,000 barrels per day of crude oil and began exports in August 1999. It had previously been importing oil and oil products for about US $300 million a year, eating up most of its export earnings, th!   e !  Reuters report said.

Sudan Animal Resources Minister Dr Abdallah Muhammad Sid Ahamad said Qatar had lifted sanctions imposed on Sudanese livestock and meats, following an outbreak of Rift Valley fever in the Gulf states. According to the Sudanese news agency Suna, the minister made the announcement after returning from a tour of Arab states, including Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. His mission had been to reassure the states which had imposed the regional Rift Valley fever ban that Sudanese meat was free of disease, Suna said. The minister said during his visit to UAE he held high-level meetings, including with the crown prince, and that matters of animal wealth and green fodder had been discussed. The lifting of the Rift Valley fever ban on Sudan by Qatar has not been confirmed by other sources.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and the Somali interim president, Abdiqasim Salad Hasan, have agreed to mediation efforts by Sudanese minister of external relations, Mustafa Uthman Ismail. According to the Mogadishu-based "Qaran' newspaper, monitored by the BBC, Sudanese President Omar Hasan al-Bashir was due to talk to President Hasan in Doha on Sunday, where they were both attending a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC). The Somali president was expected to accompany the Sudanese foreign minister to Addis Ababa on Monday to meet with Meles Zenawi. Sudan has urged the new Somali administration to stop issuing hostile statements against the Ethiopian government, said the 'Qaran' report on 12 November. It said relations had soured between the Somali and Ethiopian governments since the establishment of the interim Somali administration in September. Ethiopian troops are present in the Bay and Bakool regions of southern Somalia, and have built up a presence along the common border, diplomatic sources told IRIN. 

Government forces on Thursday claimed to be in control of the city of Kassala, 400 km east of the capital Khartoum, after driving out rebels who had claimed its capture on Wednesday, Reuters news agency reported. "The government and army are in control," it quoted a city resident as saying. A dusk-to-dawn curfew was in place, in addition to a state of emergency, but residents were on Thursday preparing to go to work again, the report said.  The rebel National Democratic Alliance (NDA) - a political and military grouping of Muslim opposition groups from the north and the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) in the south - had said its forces captured Kassala before dawn on Wednesday morning after a day and night of heavy fighting. Sudanese Minister for Information and Culture Ghazi Salah al-Din also said on Wednesday that "the entire forces" of the insurgents belonged to the SPLA, and not the NDA. 

Rebels have never before controlled Kassala, which lies on the main road between Khartoum and Port Sudan, along which all Sudan's imports and exports pass, the BBC reported. Eritrea has been trying to broker a peace agreement between the NDA (based in Eritrea) and the Sudanese government, with which it resumed ties earlier this year after a break of six years amid accusations that each supported the other's rebel movements. Sudan had agreed in principle to certain Eritrean proposals, but the NDA has reportedly insisted of Eritrea that it secures "something in writing" from the Khartoum government on a new constitution, democracy, human rights and a transition government before it will engage in talks. 

The Sudanese government will urge the UN Security Council to lift diplomatic and economic sanctions against it after more than four years, despite the threat of the US blocking any such move with its veto in the Council, Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said in Khartoum on Wednesday. He said the US had sent Sudan a message threatening to use its veto on 15 November if Khartoum requested a lifting of the sanctions, imposed in 1996 in the wake of Sudan's refusal to hand over suspects in an assassination attempt on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia, and its alleged assistance and support for terrorist elements. "We will present our request on the scheduled date unless we feel that the outcome will not be in Sudan's interest, and in this case we will postpone but not altogether abandon the request," Agence France Presse (AFP) quoted Ismail as saying. The foreign minister said dialogue with the US would not stop, and relations would "never be as bad as they were before," it added. 

The sanctions restricted the movement of Sudanese officials abroad, cut the number of diplomatic missions in and to Sudan, and called on international and regional organisations not to hold conferences in Sudan, according to Resolution 1054 of the Security Council on 26 April 1996. Even so, Sudan was planning to host a summit conference of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (which has Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, and Uganda as members) next week, AFP reported. 

Foreign Minister Ismail on Wednesday told reporters that Uganda was procrastinating over the implementation of an agreement reached in September to normalise relations between the two countries, which have been strained by the support of each for rebel movements in the other. A technical committee meeting to discuss implementation was twice postponed in October, and Ismail on Wednesday rejected Uganda's explanation that this was due to an outbreak of the haemorrhagic fever Ebola in the north of the country.  Ismail also said Uganda had rejected a Sudanese diplomat nominated to operate from the Libyan embassy in the Ugandan capital Kampala, and had not yet named an envoy of its own to operate from the Kenyan embassy in Khartoum, as agreed in the reconciliation pact. Despite "the Ugandan procrastination", Sudan was committed to honouring its responsibilities on dealing with the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army [which has bases inside Sudan]; the repatriation of Ugandans abducted by the LRA; and the exchange of diplomatic representation, he added. 

Ismail also rejected a Canadian offer to lead by itself mediation between Uganda and Sudan, saying that Khartoum preferred to have Canada involved within the initiative of the US-based Carter Centre, which was sponsoring negotiations between the two countries and had facilitated the Kampala reconciliation agreement in September, the official Sudanese news agency (SUNA) reported. 

Ambassador Tom Eric Vraalsen, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Envoy for Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan, has criticised "the collapse of the unilateral humanitarian ceasefires" in Sudan which had been in effect since July 1998. Vraalsen, who chaired a meeting of the Technical Committee on Humanitarian Assistance (TCHA) in Geneva late last week, expressed displeasure during the meeting at the cessation of the ceasefires, and noted the loss of life and damage to property from war-related ground and air offensives. He said they had resulted in large-scale displacements of civilian populations, "bringing further misery to a people who can barely meet their basic needs", according to a final statement from the meeting.  Vraalsen also urged the parties to consider establishing an independent Grievance Committee, noting that such a body could reinforce adherence to ceasefires and build confidence. 

During the Geneva meeting, the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), parties to the conflict in the Sudan, agreed to establish a cross-line road corridor from Kenya to southern Sudan, in order to ensure secure delivery of relief aid to affected Sudanese populations, a UN press release stated on Monday. The agreement to link Lokichoggio in northern Kenya to Kapoeta in southeastern Sudan was reached during this the fourth meeting of the TCHA, held in Geneva from 2-3 November. The participants unanimously reaffirmed their commitment to the principle of unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance to people in need, and acknowledged the importance of the national campaign to vaccinate children against polio, following an appeal by Vraalsen, the final communique stated. 

The Catholic Information Office for Sudan on Friday reported that Torit district, near the Kenyan border, was the latest target of government air bombardments which had seen the air force drop 60 bombs in 10 days. These attacks were directed at civilian structures, including schools, hospitals, churches and cultural facilities, in Nimule, Ikotos, Ngaluma and now Torit, a press release by the Church office stated. The government had generated population displacement, created "a climate of fear" and blocked the progress of projects to stabilise the population, restore their confidence and involve them in longer-term development. The Office called for a ban on military planes flying over South Sudan, and demanded the presence of UN observers to monitor the Sudanese conflict. 

The government bombing of civilian targets in Eastern Equatoria province in southern Sudan was having "devastating effects on traumatised local people", the Roman Catholic Church stated on Wednesday. Those worst affected were children, who now fled at the sight or sound of any aircraft, according to a statement issued by the Nairobi-based Sudan Catholic Information Office (SCIO). Fr Maurice Loguti, stationed in the Catholic Diocese of Torit - the site of regular bombings - said the way the air raids were now conducted would leave even the most daring soldier terrified, and said that on 25 October an Antonov bomber dropped 12 bombs, two-by two over two hours, on Ikotos, near the Ugandan border. The government has fighting a civil war against the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) in southern Sudan since 1983, and has frequently been accused of deliberately bombing civilian targets. 

The opposition Umma Party on Wednesday said it would be boycotting the Sudanese presidential and parliamentary elections in December, becoming the second major opposition party to do so, the Associated Press agency (AP)  reported. The party of former prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi – whose government was overthrown by Omar al-Bashir, the current president, in 1989 - would not consider the elections legitimate, AP quoted its spokeswoman Sara Nugudullah as saying. Umma was asking that the elections be postponed until a comprehensive political solution to the Sudanese civil war was reached, and that the money earmarked for the elections be used to treat medical patients and develop services, she added. Nugudullah's statement came a day after al-Mahdi said he would return to Sudan on 24 November after four years in exile, reportedly to use the limited political freedom available to work for peace and democracy, AP added. 

The former speaker of parliament Hassan al-Turabi said last month that his part, the Popular National Congress (PNC), would not take part in elections until al-Bashir stood down. Turabi formed the PNC earlier this year after his former close partner al-Bashir sidelined him for allegedly trying to oust him. 

President Omar al-Bashir on Sunday signed a decree cancelling customs duties for countries of the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), according to Sudanese state television. Duties would be cancelled as of Wednesday according to the decree, announced on the eve of Bashir's departure for a COMESA summit in Zambia, Agence France Presse (AFP) stated, citing the television report. Sudan and nine other countries: Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Zambia and Zimbabwe are due to sign an agreement creating a free-trade zone during this week's COMESA summit. It was not immediately clear whether Sudan's customs waiver would apply only to members of this or to all COMESA members, the AFP report added. 

The government has ignored its commitment to having 'days of tranquility' in Sudan's civil war during a polio vaccination campaign now under way, and dropped 24 bombs on Nimule town in Eastern Equatoria on Sunday, Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) spokesman George Garang Deng stated on Monday. This was the second timethe government had bombed civilian targets during the current polio campaign, a statement from Garang said. On Tuesday 17 October the army had bombed relief posts in Tali and around Terakeka, also in Eastern Equatoria, it said.  Humanitarian sources told IRIN on Monday that seven bombs had reportedly fallen around a church in Nimule, four at the nursery school and an unknown number around the mission house of the Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS). There were no injuries reported, they said. The SPLM/A and the government of Sudan have agreed to have a period of tranquillity in southern Sudan from 16 to 27 October for the polio campaign at the request of the WHO and UNICEF, and the rebel movement said on Monday it was still committed to observing the 10-day truce. [see separate IRIN report of 24 October on the Polio Immunisation Campaign]

Officials of the Sudanese and Ugandan governments were in continuing contact to arrange for the deployment of Egyptian and Libyan monitors to prevent border violations by opposition rebels, the semi-official Ugandan newspaper, 'The New Vision' reported on Tuesday. The monitors were expected to ensure that no support reached the SPLA/M from Uganda, and to help relocate the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) away from the Ugandan border, deeper into Sudan, the paper quoted the Sudanese minister of state for external affairs, Ali Abd al-Rahman Numayri, as saying. The deployment of monitors was agreed at a meeting in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, from 6 to 7 October and, although a meeting of a technical committee to implement the plan was postponed on 20 October, contacts between the two governments were continuing with a view to deploying the monitors at an early date, the report said.

Meanwhile, the Ugandan army - the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) - was on high alert at strategic border areas in Adjumani, Pakelle and refugee settlements for fear of a possible attack by the LRA, humanitarian sources in northern Uganda told IRIN on Monday. The alert followed a report that the rebels had crossed from their Sudanese bases, and were probably heading towards Adjumani or Pakelle, they said. 

Government forces on Thursday claimed to be in control of the city of Kassala, 400 km east of the capital Khartoum, after driving out rebels who had claimed its capture on Wednesday, Reuters news agency reported. "The government and army are in control," it quoted a city resident as saying. A dusk-to-dawn curfew was in place, in addition to a state of emergency, but residents were on Thursday preparing to go to work again, the report said.  The rebel National Democratic Alliance (NDA) - a political and military grouping of Muslim opposition groups from the north and the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) in the south - had said its forces captured Kassala before dawn on Wednesday morning after a day and night of heavy fighting. Sudanese Minister for Information and Culture Ghazi Salah al-Din also said on Wednesday that "the entire forces" of the insurgents belonged to the SPLA, and not the NDA. 

Rebels have never before controlled Kassala, which lies on the main road between Khartoum and Port Sudan, along which all Sudan's imports and exports pass, the BBC reported. Eritrea has been trying to broker a peace agreement between the NDA (based in Eritrea) and the Sudanese government, with which it resumed ties earlier this year after a break of six years amid accusations that each supported the other's rebel movements. Sudan had agreed in principle to certain Eritrean proposals, but the NDA has reportedly insisted of Eritrea that it secures "something in writing" from the Khartoum government on a new constitution, democracy, human rights and a transition government before it will engage in talks. 

The Sudanese government will urge the UN Security Council to lift diplomatic and economic sanctions against it after more than four years, despite the threat of the US blocking any such move with its veto in the Council, Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said in Khartoum on Wednesday. He said the US had sent Sudan a message threatening to use its veto on 15 November if Khartoum requested a lifting of the sanctions, imposed in 1996 in the wake of Sudan's refusal to hand over suspects in an assassination attempt on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia, and its alleged assistance and support for terrorist elements. "We will present our request on the scheduled date unless we feel that the outcome will not be in Sudan's interest, and in this case we will postpone but not altogether abandon the request," Agence France Presse (AFP) quoted Ismail as saying. The foreign minister said dialogue with the US would not stop, and relations would "never be as bad as they were before," it added. 

The sanctions restricted the movement of Sudanese officials abroad, cut the number of diplomatic missions in and to Sudan, and called on international and regional organisations not to hold conferences in Sudan, according to Resolution 1054 of the Security Council on 26 April 1996. Even so, Sudan was planning to host a summit conference of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (which has Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, and Uganda as members) next week, AFP reported. 

Foreign Minister Ismail on Wednesday told reporters that Uganda was procrastinating over the implementation of an agreement reached in September to normalise relations between the two countries, which have been strained by the support of each for rebel movements in the other. A technical committee meeting to discuss implementation was twice postponed in October, and Ismail on Wednesday rejected Uganda's explanation that this was due to an outbreak of the haemorrhagic fever Ebola in the north of the country.  Ismail also said Uganda had rejected a Sudanese diplomat nominated to operate from the Libyan embassy in the Ugandan capital Kampala, and had not yet named an envoy of its own to operate from the Kenyan embassy in Khartoum, as agreed in the reconciliation pact. Despite "the Ugandan procrastination", Sudan was committed to honouring its responsibilities on dealing with the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army [which has bases inside Sudan]; the repatriation of Ugandans abducted by the LRA; and the exchange of diplomatic representation, he added. 

Ismail also rejected a Canadian offer to lead by itself mediation between Uganda and Sudan, saying that Khartoum preferred to have Canada involved within the initiative of the US-based Carter Centre, which was sponsoring negotiations between the two countries and had facilitated the Kampala reconciliation agreement in September, the official Sudanese news agency (SUNA) reported. 

Ambassador Tom Eric Vraalsen, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Envoy for Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan, has criticised "the collapse of the unilateral humanitarian ceasefires" in Sudan which had been in effect since July 1998. Vraalsen, who chaired a meeting of the Technical Committee on Humanitarian Assistance (TCHA) in Geneva late last week, expressed displeasure during the meeting at the cessation of the ceasefires, and noted the loss of life and damage to property from war-related ground and air offensives. He said they had resulted in large-scale displacements of civilian populations, "bringing further misery to a people who can barely meet their basic needs", according to a final statement from the meeting.  Vraalsen also urged the parties to consider establishing an independent Grievance Committee, noting that such a body could reinforce adherence to ceasefires and build confidence. 

During the Geneva meeting, the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), parties to the conflict in the Sudan, agreed to establish a cross-line road corridor from Kenya to southern Sudan, in order to ensure secure delivery of relief aid to affected Sudanese populations, a UN press release stated on Monday. The agreement to link Lokichoggio in northern Kenya to Kapoeta in southeastern Sudan was reached during this the fourth meeting of the TCHA, held in Geneva from 2-3 November. The participants unanimously reaffirmed their commitment to the principle of unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance to people in need, and acknowledged the importance of the national campaign to vaccinate children against polio, following an appeal by Vraalsen, the final communique stated. 

The Catholic Information Office for Sudan on Friday reported that Torit district, near the Kenyan border, was the latest target of government air bombardments which had seen the air force drop 60 bombs in 10 days. These attacks were directed at civilian structures, including schools, hospitals, churches and cultural facilities, in Nimule, Ikotos, Ngaluma and now Torit, a press release by the Church office stated. The government had generated population displacement, created "a climate of fear" and blocked the progress of projects to stabilise the population, restore their confidence and involve them in longer-term development. The Office called for a ban on military planes flying over South Sudan, and demanded the presence of UN observers to monitor the Sudanese conflict. 

The government bombing of civilian targets in Eastern Equatoria province in southern Sudan was having "devastating effects on traumatised local people", the Roman Catholic Church stated on Wednesday. Those worst affected were children, who now fled at the sight or sound of any aircraft, according to a statement issued by the Nairobi-based Sudan Catholic Information Office (SCIO). Fr Maurice Loguti, stationed in the Catholic Diocese of Torit - the site of regular bombings - said the way the air raids were now conducted would leave even the most daring soldier terrified, and said that on 25 October an Antonov bomber dropped 12 bombs, two-by two over two hours, on Ikotos, near the Ugandan border. The government has fighting a civil war against the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) in southern Sudan since 1983, and has frequently been accused of deliberately bombing civilian targets. 

The opposition Umma Party on Wednesday said it would be boycotting the Sudanese presidential and parliamentary elections in December, becoming the second major opposition party to do so, the Associated Press agency (AP)  reported. The party of former prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi – whose government was overthrown by Omar al-Bashir, the current president, in 1989 - would not consider the elections legitimate, AP quoted its spokeswoman Sara Nugudullah as saying. Umma was asking that the elections be postponed until a comprehensive political solution to the Sudanese civil war was reached, and that the money earmarked for the elections be used to treat medical patients and develop services, she added. Nugudullah's statement came a day after al-Mahdi said he would return to Sudan on 24 November after four years in exile, reportedly to use the limited political freedom available to work for peace and democracy, AP added. 

The former speaker of parliament Hassan al-Turabi said last month that his part, the Popular National Congress (PNC), would not take part in elections until al-Bashir stood down. Turabi formed the PNC earlier this year after his former close partner al-Bashir sidelined him for allegedly trying to oust him. 

President Omar al-Bashir on Sunday signed a decree cancelling customs duties for countries of the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), according to Sudanese state television. Duties would be cancelled as of Wednesday according to the decree, announced on the eve of Bashir's departure for a COMESA summit in Zambia, Agence France Presse (AFP) stated, citing the television report. Sudan and nine other countries: Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Zambia and Zimbabwe are due to sign an agreement creating a free-trade zone during this week's COMESA summit. It was not immediately clear whether Sudan's customs waiver would apply only to members of this or to all COMESA members, the AFP report added. 

The government has ignored its commitment to having 'days of tranquility' in Sudan's civil war during a polio vaccination campaign now under way, and dropped 24 bombs on Nimule town in Eastern Equatoria on Sunday, Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) spokesman George Garang Deng stated on Monday. This was the second timethe government had bombed civilian targets during the current polio campaign, a statement from Garang said. On Tuesday 17 October the army had bombed relief posts in Tali and around Terakeka, also in Eastern Equatoria, it said.  Humanitarian sources told IRIN on Monday that seven bombs had reportedly fallen around a church in Nimule, four at the nursery school and an unknown number around the mission house of the Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS). There were no injuries reported, they said. The SPLM/A and the government of Sudan have agreed to have a period of tranquillity in southern Sudan from 16 to 27 October for the polio campaign at the request of the WHO and UNICEF, and the rebel movement said on Monday it was still committed to observing the 10-day truce. [see separate IRIN report of 24 October on the Polio Immunisation Campaign]

Officials of the Sudanese and Ugandan governments were in continuing contact to arrange for the deployment of Egyptian and Libyan monitors to prevent border violations by opposition rebels, the semi-official Ugandan newspaper, 'The New Vision' reported on Tuesday. The monitors were expected to ensure that no support reached the SPLA/M from Uganda, and to help relocate the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) away from the Ugandan border, deeper into Sudan, the paper quoted the Sudanese minister of state for external affairs, Ali Abd al-Rahman Numayri, as saying. The deployment of monitors was agreed at a meeting in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, from 6 to 7 October and, although a meeting of a technical committee to implement the plan was postponed on 20 October, contacts between the two governments were continuing with a view to deploying the monitors at an early date, the report said. 

Meanwhile, the Ugandan army - the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) - was on high alert at strategic border areas in Adjumani, Pakelle and refugee settlements for fear of a possible attack by the LRA, humanitarian sources in northern Uganda told IRIN on Monday. The alert followed a report that the rebels had crossed from their Sudanese bases, and were probably heading towards Adjumani or Pakelle, they said. 

Sudan has announced the lifting of the state of emergency imposed in July this year following the split between President Omar al-Bashir and the former speaker of parliament Hassan al-Turabi. The Sudanese mission at the UN in New York also called for international election observers to monitor the country's forthcoming presidential elections this December, according to a UN press release. Humanitarian organisations had criticised the state of emergency, saying it would allow the security forces to "act with total impunity", thus endangering people's human rights. 

The moves were welcomed by Leonardo Franco, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the country, during a debate at the UN in New York. In an interim report, Franco noted that although there had been progress in addressing the root cause of the Sudan conflict, all sides were guilty of "massive and systematic violations" of human rights and international humanitarian law, mostly against innocent civilians.  "The dramatic escalation in military hostilities over the past few months is of concern," Franco said in his report. He expressed regret that an improved political environment had not led to a cessation of human rights violations such as torture, arbitrary detention and attempts against freedoms. He noted there was a new dynamism in relations between the government and political opposition.

In the report, Franco expressed concern over abductions of women and children in Sudan, abuses by the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army in Eastern Equatoria, and the situation of refugees from Eritrea. "He underlined the responsibility of the SPLM/A for military actions taken in violation of a ceasefire," a UN résumé of the report said.  "He strongly recommended the promotion of new follow-up mechanisms within the framework of the peacemaking process, endorsing earlier recommendations that urged renewal of a ceasefire and the mediation structure aimed at a negotiated solution to the conflict." 

US President Bill Clinton has expressed concern over government bombing raids in southern Sudan. In a statement released by the White House, he recalled that last week "government aircraft dropped munitions on a village while an international relief agency was distributing food". "Such egregious abuses have become commonplace in Sudan's ongoing civil war," the statement said. "If the government of Sudan seeks to demonstrate to the international community that it is prepared to act according to international norms...it must allow full and immediate access for humanitarian organisations seeking to provide relief to Sudan'swar-ravaged civilians," the statement said. 

UNHCR is sending a team of 15 protection officers to Khartoum to prepare the screening of Ethiopian refugees who fled their country before 1991 and who now fall under the "cessation clause" declared in March in all countries still hosting Ethiopian refugees. They will provide training to 15 counterparts from the Sudanese government, and together they will carry out the screening process, UNHCR said. The operation follows a decision last September to withdraw blanket refugee status from Ethiopians who fled during the Mengistu regime, considering that conditions were now safe for them to repatriate. Sudan still hosts the largest group of Ethiopians who left their country prior to 1991, with 12,000 in camps and almost twice as many in urban areas. UNHCR said more than 2,000 camp residents had registered for voluntary repatriation, and the figure was expected to rise following the launch of a mass information campaign by Ethiopian officials and UNHCR this week. 

The executive director of UNICEF, Carol Bellamy, visiting Sudan to launch the countrywide polio immunisation campaign, has received "the fullest assurance yet" from the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M)  that no children under the age of 18 would be recruited, or allowed to stay in the ranks if already recruited, a press release from the agency stated on Tuesday. At the UNICEF-supported Deng Nhial School for demobilised child soldiers in the central southern Sudanese town of Rumbek, Bellamy received the renewed commitment from Commander Salva Kiir Mayardit, deputy chairman of the SPLA/M. "Commander Salva Kiir has explained that, although the Movement banned the use of child soldiers two years ago, many orphans and displaced youngsters still found a home in the army, where at least they could find food. But this promise is recognition that the military is not in any way a suitable environment for a child. We hope that now all sides will follow suit," said Bellamy.

The SPLA at the weekend discharged 109 child soldiers, bringing the number of students at the Deng Nhial school to more than 400, UNICEF stated. While many children were involved in fighting, younger ones are often used for cooking or washing, but "even life as a servant in a guerilla camp exposes them to attack, and causes them to miss out on education," it added. The agency described as "one of the enduring tragedies" of Sudan's civil war the fact that there are some 9,000 child soldiers fighting on all sides in the conflict. 

The government has ignored its commitment to having 'days of tranquility' in Sudan's civil war during a polio vaccination campaign now underway, and dropped 24 bombs on Nimule town in Eastern Equatoria on Sunday, SPLA/M spokesman George Garang Deng stated on Monday. This was the second time the government had bombed civilian targets during the current polio campaign, a statement from Garang said. On Tuesday 17 October the army had bombed relief posts in Tali and around Terekeka, also in Eastern Equatoria, it said.  Humanitarian sources told IRIN on Monday that seven bombs had reportedly fallen around a church in Nimule, four at the nursery school and an unknown number around the mission house of the Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS). There were no injuries reported, they said. The SPLA/M and the government of Sudan have agreed to have a period of tranquillity in southern Sudan from 16 to 27 October for the polio campaign at the request of the WHO and UNICEF, and the rebel movement said on Monday it was still committed to observing the 10-day truce. 

Officials of the Sudanese and Ugandan governments were in continuing contact to arrange for the deployment of Egyptian and Libyan monitors to prevent border violations by opposition rebels, the semi-official Ugandan 'New Vision' newspaper reported on Tuesday. The monitors were expected to assure that no support reached the SPLA/M from Uganda, and to help relocate the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) away from the Ugandan border, deeper into Sudan, the paper quoted Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Abdel Rahman Nimeiri as saying. The deployment of monitors was agreed at a meeting in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on 6-7 October and, although a meeting of a technical committee to implement the plan was postponed on Friday, contacts between the two governments were continuing, with a view to deploying the monitors at an early date, the report said. 

Meanwhile, the Ugandan army - the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) - were on high alert at strategic border areas in Adjumani, Pakelle and refugee settlements for fear of a possible attack by the LRA, humanitarian sources in northern Uganda told IRIN on Monday. The alert followed a report that the rebels had crossed from their Sudanese bases, and were probably heading towards Adjumani or Pakelle, they said.

The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) is demobilising child soldiers.  The SPLA has instructed all its commanders in the field to demobilise all children under 18 years of age, a BBC report said on Monday. According to the report, the SPLA further committed itself to stop recruiting child soldiers. Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF, currently visiting southern Sudan, told the BBC she had "received commitment from the authorities in the south" that all child soldiers will be demobilised. The report estimated that there are roughly 9,000 child soldiers in the SPLA. 

Meanwhile, a 12 day truce is holding in south Sudan to allow for a UN Polio Eradication Initiative, the BBC said. The initiative aims to stamp out polio by 2005. 

Little attention has been paid to the development needs of the people of southern Sudan, where chronic conflict has "systematically destroyed the social fabric of institutions sustaining food security, education and health care". In a joint statement, Christian Aid and Oxfam said despite humanitarian efforts in the war-affected south, underdevelopment had become institutionalised. "Southern Sudan now represents one of the most glaring examples of development failure in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa", the statement said. It criticised British government policy for "reducing development assistance while war continued", saying it had done little to further the pursuit of peace. 

Sudanese government planes bombed two civilian targets in Ikotos and Parajok in eastern Equatoria, southern Sudan, on 15 October. The US Committee for Refugees said in a press release on Monday that the bombings "appear to indicate that Sudanese officials are prepared to intensify their bombing campaign against civilians and international humanitarian aid workers in southern Sudan now that their bid for a Security Council seat has been defeated". It said there had been four bombings of civilian or humanitarian sites this week, following "a three-week bombing lull that preceded the 10 October vote by the UN General Assembly to select new members to the Security Council". Sudan was defeated in the final vote, with the US leading a campaign against its bid on the basis of its human rights record and alleged involvement in terrorism.

The US Committee for Refugees called on the US government, the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly to officially condemn each aerial bombing in southern Sudan. "Occasional criticisms of the bombings voiced by foreign policy makers are insufficent," it said. 

The Sudanese government and the southern-based Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) have agreed to observe a cessation of hostilities to allow UNICEF to attempt to vaccinate some 4.5 million Sudanese children. The UNICEF representative in Khartoum, Thomas Ekvall, told reporters that the two parties had pledged to observe a "period of tranquillity" during the immunisation programme, AP reported on Monday. Ekvall said UNICEF had demanded full access to all areas during the campaign to vaccinate children under five from 21 to 23 October and from 17 to 18 November. 

President Umar al-Bashir dismissed his second vice-president, George Kongor Arop, on Sunday. A statement released by the government gave no reason for the surprise decision, news agencies reported. George Kongor, who is southern Sudanese, has been a close assistant to Bashir since he was appointed to the post in 1992. The day before his dismissal, Kongor had been on an inspection tour of Khartoum teaching hospital, after which he was summoned by Bashir, who informed him of the decision, press reports said.  The Sudanese constitution provides that the country's second vice-president should be a southerner. 

A lawyer defending two citizens in Nyala, western Sudan, was arrested while on duty and transferred to Khartoum. The London-based human rights organisation, Sudanese Victims of Torture Group (STVG), said in a press release made available to IRIN that since his arrest on 5 October, the lawyer had been held incommu