1: Opposition leader Turabi has termed his transfer from jail to house arrest as a government trick to keep him locked up. He said that the move was a plot by the government to outwit the judiciary, which has so far refused to extend his detention in jail. 

1: Sudanese opposition leader Sadeq al-Mahdi, who was due to travel to Washington, said that he would push the Bush administration to urge both sides in his country’s civil war to make peace and create a true democracy. In an interview with Reuters, Mahdi said that the US could play an important role in pressuring both sides to reach a just peace through political talks, not warfare.

3: The Sudanese government denied claims by the SPLA that rebel forces had captured Raga, a state-owned newspaper said. The Sudanese daily al-Anbaa quoted a government spokesman as saying government forces and pro-government militia drove back an SPLA attack on a military post in Raga. 

3: Peace for Sudan is still elusive after the SPLA announced that it couldn’t reach an agreement with the government. This was at the end of an IGAD summit that is seeking to end the war. “We have agreed to disagree and then proceed from there,” said President Bashir also attended SPLA leader Garang at the end of a meting that.

3: President Bashir has expressed his disappointment in the failure of the IGAD meeting to find a solution to the civil war engulfing his country. Speaking on arrival from Kenya, Bashir said that the summit didn’t reach the expected results. 

5: The Canadian oil firm, Talisman Energy has vowed to stay in Sudan despite the charges that its operations were fuelling the war. During a three-day tour of Sudan, the firm’s President and CEO, Jim Buckee, said that Talisman could do more to improve the situation of human rights abuses in Sudan by staying there rather than quitting.

6: The Sudanese government has called on the international community to pressure the SPLA to agree to a ceasefire. This was four days after SPLA forces captured Raga. Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chuol Deng said the rebel group had launched the offensive in Bahr so as to disrupt a peace summit aimed at ending the war.

6: The WFP has expressed its concerns to the Sudanese government about a security incident in Barurud, northwestern Bahr al-Ghazal, in which bombs dropped from an Antonov aircraft narrowly missed a WFP relief plane. The incident forced the WFP aircrew to immediately abort the food drop. 

6: Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail has admitted that the SPLA had captured Raga and Deim Zubeir, the 'Khartoum Monitor' newspaper reported. Ismail called for intensive mobilisation of government-allied forces to recapture the areas, stating that the government would adhere to "the agenda of war" being practised by SPLA leader.

6: Two leaders of Turabi’s Popular National Congress visited Paris during which they met with representatives of the French foreign and defence ministries. Ali al Haj, a former minister currently living in Germany, and Al Mahboub Abdelsalam are among some of the party’s leaders who signed the Memorandum of Understanding with the SPLA in February. 

7: The Sudanese cabinet has announced the beginning of a campaign of alert in the country and to mobilise all potentials in order to confront the attack launched by the SPLA. This was declared after a cabinet meeting chaired by President Bashir in which he said that the armed and people defence forces will not give up the unity of the country's territories, nor stability and security of its citizens.

8: The US State Department has expressed concern over reports that Sudan launched aerial strikes against civilian targets in the south. If the reports were true, it would be a violation of Khartoum's May 25 pledge to end the bombings of civilian targets, department spokesman Richard Boucher said. 

8: The European Union has called for the Government of Sudan and the SPLA to immediately stop hostilities in order to create a conducive atmosphere for negotiations to end the war. It also encouraged Kenya, in its capacity as chair of the IGAD committee for Sudan, to press ahead with its fellow IGAD members to reinvigorate the peace process, which has not made much progress so far. 

9: The SPLA claimed that its forces had killed 244 Sudanese government troops during a raid in an oil-prospecting region, northeast of Wangkei, in the southern al-Wihda province. According to Asmara-based spokesman, Yasser Erman, "244 Sudanese soldiers were killed in fighting which lasted over five hours".

11: The current fighting in western Bahr el Ghazal has displaced 30, 000 people, creating the ideal conditions for a humanitarian crisis, said UN Emergency Relief Co- ordinator, Kenzo Oshima. According to the official, the recent offensive by the SPLA has brought about a further deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the area and also threatens aid deliveries to hundreds of thousands of affected people.

11: Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa has said the situation in Sudan is "regrettable and dangerous," Egypt's state-run Middle East News Agency reported. Moussa made the remarks after talks with visiting Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail, calling for implementing an Egyptian-Libyan peace initiative aimed at ending the war. 

11: The Sudanese government announced that its armed forces will resume air strikes in the south, a move which was “suspended” last month, to defend itself in the light of the SPLA’s current military onslaught.

12: The US State Department expects to complete by September of this year a programme of resettling approximately 3,800 Sudanese children and young adults from Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwestern Kenya. The project that began in November last year involves boys and young men, who have come to be known as the "lost boys" of Sudan. They were among an estimated 17,000) who were separated from their parents and to Ethiopia. 

13: A US parliamentary committee has said Uganda is not involved in the Sudanese conflict as claimed by Khartoum. The report by US House committee on international relations and dated June 8 also recommended to Congress to pass the Bill for enactment of the Sudan Peace Act that would give authority to President George Bush's administration to take measures to end what it described as "the longest running civil war in the world." 

13: The EU has registered its concern over the renewed military activity by the SPLA, particularly in Bahr al-Ghazal and Khartoum’s resumption of aerial bombings in response to this offensive. The EU has called on both parties to halt their military activity in order to create an environment conducive to negotiations and the safe delivery of humanitarian assistance to the affected civilian population.

13: Sudan's Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail has said that his government was ready to share oil revenues with the SPLA if they stopped their armed struggle. "The government offers dividing oil (revenues) between the north and the south to be used for development and peace which will come when the rebel movement halts its military operations," Ismail told reporters after meeting with President Hosni Mubarak.

13: The US House of Representatives condemned human rights abuses committed during the Sudanese war, moved to aid the peace process and punish foreign companies engaged in oil and gas production in the country. On an overwhelming 422-2 vote, House members approved legislation that authorises the president to make US$10 million available to the SPLA. The House also approved an amendment that would prohibit foreign companies from being listed on U.S. stock exchanges if they engage in oil exploration in Sudan.

13: President Bush's administration is seeking to split Sudan into two by supporting the southern rebels, President Bashir claimed "The goal of the Bush government is to split the country into two," Bashir said in an interview with Al-Ahram Hebdo, an Egyptian government weekly. 

13: Sudan's Supreme Court has ordered the continued detention of Turabi and five colleagues pending consideration of legal motions in their cases, the official SUNA news agency reported. Turabi and other PNC officials are charged with attempting to overthrow the government by force in collaboration with an armed opposition for concluding last February a memorandum of understanding with the SPLA. 

13: Canada's Talisman Energy Inc., the most prominent firm producing oil in Sudan, said it did not expect to be affected by a US bill seeking to punish foreign companies operating in the country. House of Representatives members approved legislation that included an amendment that would prohibit foreign companies from being listed on US stock exchanges if they engage in oil exploration in Sudan. 

14: More than one-third of Sudan's 29.5 million people cannot read or write after many literacy campaigns failed for lack of financing, according to an official report made public. The independent Al Rai Al Akher daily quoted a report by the National Council for Literacy and Adult Education (NCLAE), which put at 11,500,642 the number of illiterate people in Sudan.

15: Khartoum has appealed to the international community to denounce the recent offensive by the SPLA in southern Sudan. The country’s foreign ministry is urging maximum pressure be put upon the group to force it to accept a comprehensive cease-fire. 

15: Sudan has agreed to supply Ethiopia with petroleum derivatives on a monthly basis from November, the official SUNA news agency reported. Under the deal, Sudan will supply Ethiopia with 120,000 metric tonnes of gasoline and 36,000 tonnes of kerosene annually. Sudan will also allow Ethiopia to build a fuel depot inside Sudanese territory to ensure a steady supply of the fuel by road.

15: The SPLA whose forces have surrounded Wau, the capital of Bahr el Ghazal Province, a key government garrison town, have agreed to requests by aid workers to evacuate and also encouraged local civilians to leave. "We are besieging and shelling" Wau,” said Samson Kwaje, SPLA’s spokesman.

16: The situation affecting people displaced by intensive fighting in western Bahr al-Ghazal has reached crisis levels as many of the 30,000 who had fled their homes are sleeping in the open, says the UN. David Courrie, an official of the OCHA office in Khartoum, said that rains expected any time now would render many roads impassable and complicate efforts to deliver aid. 

16: Sudan’s Director of the National Strategic Reserve Department, Ahmad Osman al-Hajj has said the government will import 150,000 tonnes of sorghum from India. Hajj also said that steps are being taken for the purchase of additional 45,000 tonnes of wheat. 

16: The SPLA has accused the government of having escalated the war in recent weeks. The group’s spokesman Samson Kwaje told AFP that the government started the offensive at the beginning of dry season last October by "attacking our positions in the Southern Blue Nile (region)" and threatening other attacks before the peace summit in Nairobi on June 2. 

16: The SPLA has reiterated appeals to residents of Wau and Aweil in the Bahr el-Ghazal to leave the towns, which are besieged by SPLA forces. The group said that the UN, NGOs and the International Committee of the Red Cross had completed evacuation of their expatriate staff.

16: A Sudanese human rights group has demanded the release of a journalist who it said was arrested for no apparent reason. Faisal al-Baqir was picked up from his house in Khartoum, “ in a violation of his right to freedom and personal safety as provided for in the constitution of 1998, the security act of 1999 and the international conventions to which the Sudan is a signatory,” said the Sudanese Group for Human Rights.

16: Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has dismissed the Sudan Peace Act as a "bullying tactic" which was unjustified. "If they don't like someone, they will act not only against the country but also others," he said. Malaysian national oil firm Petronas is one of the foreign firms involved in Sudan’s oil industry.

16: The Sudan Peace Act could infringe on the prerogatives of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the State Department has said. The Department also has reservations about amendments to the legislation, which prohibits foreign companies from being listed on American stock exchanges if they engage in oil exploration in Sudan.

16: A young Sudanese refugee walking home with a bag of groceries in Phoenix, Arizona was killed when a van that had just collided with another vehicle veered off the roadway and hit him. James Machar Geu was one of the "Lost Boys of Sudan," who last year relocated to the US. A week before, another “Lost Boy,” Paulino Deng, 19, was killed during a parking dispute in Nashville, Tennessee.

16: The Sudanese ambassador to Washington, Khidr Haron Ahmed has accused the US House of Representatives of encouraging the SPLA to keep fighting and refuse all peace initiatives. He was reacting to a resolution by the House, which agreed to grant US$10 million to the SPLA. 

17: SPLA leader John Garang has said that oil companies operating in Sudan are legitimate targets, calling them government "mercenaries." "Oil companies threaten us with their oil exploration and by displacing more than 100,000 people... We will continue our resistance, and we still regard them (oil installations) as legitimate targets," he said.

17: An Indian court has ordered the detention of two suspects, who had allegedly conspired with Osama bin Laden to blow up the US embassy in New Delhi. The duo, Abdel Raouf Hawash, a Sudanese and his Indian associate, Shamin Sarvar, were arrested while in possession of six kilogrammes of explosives, detonators, timers and a map of the US mission. 

17: Sudan has built three weapons factories with Chinese help to halt military advances towards the oilfields by the SPLA. This is according to a report by British and Canadian organisations, which said that the factories were completed recently, near Khartoum and will engage in the manufacture of arms and ammunition. 

17: Former Sudanese Prime Minister Sadiq el-Mahdi has called for increased Sudanese and Arab efforts to "contain the harmful currents in the American public opinion." Mahdi said that these currents have resulted in a "great mobilisation of the American public opinion, in the Congress and Senate against the Sudanese regime and in favour" of the SPLA. 

17: President Bashir has announced a package of economic and tax reform measures that exempt family expenses from taxes. He said that any taxpayer has the right to invest an equivalent of 20 per cent of the net profits in the stock exchange markets and that these sums would be exempted from any taxes as long as they are invested in the stock market. 

17: Sudan's new presidential peace adviser, Dr Ghazi Salah-al-Din, has stated that the government has lost hope in the present peace initiatives to resolve the war problem. Dr Ghazi said the government would never be obliged to accept any initiative that will not serve the interests of the country. 

18: Talisman has said that it will not bend to threats against its operations in Sudan as demanded by SPLA leader Garang. "If you go back four years, you'll find the identical comments," said spokesman David Mann, reacting to reports that Garang would one day seize oil fields owned by foreign oil firms. 

18: President Bashir has made a lightening visit to Wau and vowed to rid the area of the SPLA. "The battle for purging Bahr el-Ghazal of the rebellion has already begun," he said at a rally held in the town. 

18: The trial of six Sudanese opposition figures charged with espionage and plotting an uprising has been postponed due to the sickness of the policeman who questioned them. The six members of the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) are among eight people arrested last December while meeting with US embassy political officer Glenn Warren in Khartoum. Warren was subsequently expelled from Sudan. 

18: China’s state oil company, China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) has targeted Sudan as the centrepiece of its ambitions to triple overseas production by 2005, Chinese industry officials have said. The CNPC plans to raise its foreign oil output to 15 million tonnes in 2005, up from last year's five million by establishing two new oilfields in Sudan with a combined output of 180,000 barrels per day.

18: Chester Crocker, a leading African affairs official during the Reagan administration, has rejected an offer to become the America’s special envoy for Sudan. “I'm not going to do it,'' Crocker said, citing personal reasons. 

18: Talisman Energy said that its oil properties in Sudan are not worth the headaches of facing possible sanctions in the US. The firm’s President, Jim Buckee has hinted that his company was alarmed by an amendment to the Sudan Peace Act that would bar non-American companies involved in Sudan from being listed on US stock exchanges.

18: The armed forces of the Sudanese government have dismissed claims by the SPLA that it is besieging Wau. Army spokesman Muhammad Bashir Sulayman was quoted by Sudanese newspaper 'Al-Ra'y al-Amm' as saying that claims by the SPLA it was approaching Wau were nothing more than part of a "psychological warfare game it habitually practised." 

19: Communityleaders from Southern Sudan met for one week in Kisumu, Kenya, in a bid to reconcile the groups clashing in southern Sudan. The initiative organised by the New Sudan Council of Churches and attended by chiefs, the clergy and community leaders, aims at developing a common front against Khartoum. There were also delegates from foreign church organisations involved in relief work in southern Sudan.

19: The UN and other aid agencies have evacuated their teams from Wau ahead of a projected attack by the SPLA. It has been indicated that SPLA was 10km outside the town and has already started shelling Wau.

19: The SPLA has claimed that its forces in the Nuba Mountains have captured Kalandi garrison in Deliny County, 106 miles from El-Obeid. According to the group, the outpost that fell on June 9 was part of Battalion 199 of government forces that had been ravaging the Nuba Mountains since 1986. 

19: A South Africa company has won a contract to ship second-hand locomotives to Sudan in a US$1.9 million deal that represents one of the largest capital investments in machinery for Sudan in decades. Leselo Trading was approached earlier this year to source locomotives and the first four locomotives have already reached Khartoum.

19: Ugandan Parliament has approved US$108,333 to re-open the country’s embassy in Khartoum. The money will cover the first four months of the missions' starting next month. According to the Minister of Finance, Gerald Sendawula, the mission will require an annual budget of US$325,000.

19:Sudanese opposition leader, Sadiq al-Mahdi met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Mahir during which he briefed the new Egyptian foreign minister on the current situation in Sudan, especially the escalating military situation. He also updated Mahir about his recent visit to the US. 

19: Sudanese Deputy President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha might meet with Garang during a visit to Eritrea to discuss a cease-fire agreement. It was reported that Taha was to leave Khartoum for Asmara for talks with Eritrean officials to solve disputes that still prevent complete normalisation of relations between the two countries. 

19: The Community of the Sahel and Saharan States (COMESSA) General Secretariat has announced that it is concerned with the recent military developments in southern Sudan. The economic grouping of Islamic countries in Africa said that the attacks reflected a desire to widen the field of war and conflict with all its tragedies and human and material losses. 

20: US business groups and the Bush administration are preparing to derail the Sudan Peace Act saying that it sets a dangerous precedent. This concern came after Talisman Energy indicated it might sell its stake in a Sudan oil project if the US Congress pushed forward with threats to de-list the company from the New York Stock Exchange. 

20: The Sudanese embassy in India has denied reports that one of its senior diplomats was involved in terrorist activities in India. "Sudan has no link whatsoever, covertly or otherwise, with any terrorist group inside or outside India," said the embassy. A newspaper recently reported that Indian police had put "a senior diplomat" under surveillance following the arrest of a Sudanese on charges of trying to bomb the US embassy in New Delhi.

20: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has met with Dr Garang and another opponent of Khartoum, Mohammed Osman al-Mirghani in Cairo. The trio didn’t make any statements after the meeting, but a SPLA spokesman, Yasser Arman said that the meeting was to confirm "the strong ties between the Sudanese opposition and the leadership and people of Egypt." 

20: Sudan’s Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail has said that Egypt and Libya have agreed to deploy forces on the Sudanese- Ugandan border so as to make sure that the SPLA does not receive external support. Ismail has also called for the revival of a defence agreement between Sudan and Egypt that was frozen in 1985.

20: Sadiq al-Mahdi has said that the lure of Sudan’s oil sector would push the US to revise its policies on bilateral ties. Mahdi, who recently toured the US, said that foreign countries were vying for a stake in Sudan's oil reserves, and America would certainly be interested in joining the competition. 

20: The Ugandan army has said that seven Sudanese soldiers were among several people killed in an ambush by a Ugandan rebel group traditionally allied to Khartoum. According to army spokesman Lt. Col. Phineas Katirama, a shoot-out involving the rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), took place between the southern Sudanese towns of Juba and Jabelel where the rebels were trying to recapture escaped abductees. 

20: The SPLA has said that it is opposed to the creation of an independent state in the country's south. Dr. Garang told Qatar's Al-Jazeera television "there will be no separation or announcement of an independent state in Bahr el-Ghazal," contrary to what President Bashir is saying.

20: Sweden’ Lundin Oil has said it is dismayed with the Sudan Peace Act, saying it will have a devastating effect on Sudan. According to Lundin’s CEO, Ian Lundin, the passing of the legislation is a move in the wrong direction since “oil is a critical factor in improving the standard of living and achieving economic stability in this culturally and ethnically diverse country." Lundin is listed on New York’s NASDAQ. 

20: US Secretary of State Colin Powell has welcomed a group of young Sudanese refugees who are to be resettled in the US. Powell greeted representatives of some nearly 4,000 boys who are to make the US their home after being accepted for resettlement. 

21: Prominent Slovenian intellectuals have presented an appeal on behalf of the Nuba people to US President George W. Bush and his Russian counterpart, Vladmir Putin, asking for their protection. This was after watching a videotape, "Nuba, the Pure People" made by Slovene cinematographer, Tomas Kriznar. 

21: The Nuba Relief Rehabilitation and Development Organisation (NRRDO) has said that attacks on civilian targets and drought in the Nuba Mountains have induced crop failures placing over 84,500 civilians in a life-threatening situation in the Mountains. The group says a minimum of 2,500 metric tonnes of food aid and medical and non-food items was needed to avert tragic consequences.

21: Sudan accounts for most of the world's refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs), says a new report by the US Committee for Refugees (USCR). The report says that by the end of last year, 460,000 Sudanese were living as refugees in neighbouring countries, with a further four million seeking sanctuary within Sudan as IDPs.

21: The Geneva based Committee on the Application of Standards of the International Labour Conference has condemned Sudan for failing to uphold ILO Convention 29 on forced or compulsory labour. The Committee subsequently awarded Sudan a "special paragraph", requiring Khartoum to submit immediately a report on the situation in the country. 

21: A Kenyan weekly paper, Sunday Times, claims it has exposed documents showing involvement of some American churches in the Sudanese war including offering financial support to the SPLA. The paper claims that the documents it had obtained showed that the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the World Gospel Mission WGM) had given the SPLA US$ 20.5 million for ‘unspecified purposes.’

22: Tens of thousands of people in Bahr al-Ghazal are facing serious food shortages and rising malnutrition after the recent heavy fighting forced them out of their homes, says the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning System (FEWS). In its June update for southern Sudan, FEWS said the upsurge in fighting in Bahr al-Ghazal were "deeply disturbing", since populations in the region are highly food insecure. 

22: Russia's Republic of Tatarstan has concluded an agreement on joint oil processing in Sudan. The accord was reached by a governmental delegation led by Tatarstan's Prime Minister Rustam Minikhanov. 

22: A faculty of Nile Valley University in Berber in northern Sudan has been burned down by students, reported the Al Ayam daily newspaper. The paper said that the students torched the faculty of Arabic and Islamic Studies, destroying lecture halls, laboratories, offices, computer systems and documents for unknown reasons.

22: Uganda’s LRA rebels have lost contact with those in Sudan, reported a Ugandan daily, New Vision. The Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF) on Sudan-Uganda border quoted Henry Tumukunde, commander of the Ugandan Army, as saying that the LRA rebel link has been disorganised by the tight security.

22: Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail has reassured Talisman that the government will do all it can to ensure that the company’s operations run smoothly. "We are interested to have Talisman continue with its oil activities in Sudan," Ismail was quoted by independent Al-Dastour daily. 

22: USCongressman Donald Payne, ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Africa and member of the House International Relations Committee and John Eibner, director of Christian Solidarity International's (CSI) anti-slavery programme were arrested during a demonstration at the Sudan Embassy to protest slavery and genocide in Sudan. Also arrested was Dr. Barbara A. Reynolds, author, radio talk-show host and syndicated columnist.

22: The UNHCR is to assist in the repatriation of tens of thousands of Eritreans from Sudan where they have lived for decades after fleeing war and drought, the Commission has announced. The return of 170,000 refugees, the majority of whom fled a war of liberation in the 1960s, has been fuelled by promises of land by the Eritrean government. 

22: The UN office in Sudan has rejected accusations that, by evacuating humanitarian personnel from Wau, it had failed to assist the town's war-affected population. Instead, the UN said "the decision to relocate humanitarian personnel from Wau was taken based on security considerations." 

23: Former Sudanese Premier Sadiq al-Mahdi has demanded that the government apologises for its past behaviour and also make the armed forces a national institution rather than a partisan one. He said all northerners should also apologise to people of southern Sudan and other "marginalised" regions for not paying attention to their welfare, "in order to replace the bitterness with cordiality among all Sudanese people". 

23: Uniformed Secret Service officers arrested an anti-Sudan demonstrator after he allegedly assaulted a Muslim counter-protester outside the Sudanese embassy in Washington. According to eyewitnesses, the demonstrator was among others protesting “forced Islamisation'' in Sudan while the victim was among Muslim marchers standing on the embassy's steps to challenge the anti-Muslim tone of CSI and the Sudan Campaign, the organisers of the anti-Sudan rally.

23: Sudan has heralded the media's role in promoting peace and economic development in Africa. Vice President Moses Machar said this during the opening of a special session of the General Assembly of the Union of African National Radio and Television (URTNA) in Khartoum. 

23: The Sudanese authorities have managed to free 24 Ugandan hostages from the LRA rebels, a Sudanese relief official has said. The hostages were 10 men, nine women and five children and are being accommodated at a camp just outside Khartoum. 

23: Sudan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have signed an agreement to set up a joint ministerial commission to bolster bilateral relations, SUNA news agency said. Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail said after signing the agreement with UAE Foreign Minister Hamdan ibn Zaid al-Nahyan that the ministerial commission would work to strengthen political, economic and commercial ties between Khartoum and Abu Dhabi. 

24: Ugandan troops have overrun a camp of the LRA inside Sudan, killing 22 of the rebels, according to AFP. Ugandan military commander Brigadier Henry Tumukunde said that Ugandan troops crossed some 20 kilometres into Sudan and attacked a small LRA camp at the village of Lumarati. 

24: Egypt has forced a Sudanese human rights group to close its Cairo office, an Arab rights group said. It was reported that Egyptian security ordered the Sudanese Human Rights Organisation (SHRO), which has links with Sudan's opposition, "to quit its activities and close its branch in Cairo" within 24 hours, the Arab Programme for Human Rights Activists (APHRA) said. 

24:The overwhelming vote in the US House of Representatives earlier this month to punish oil companies doing business in Sudan did not exactly overwhelm human rights activists in that country, reported the Washington Post. The activists emphasise that as long as the companies involved are Western, their concerns about corporate citizenship provide valuable leverage to the war's many critics. 

24: Highway robbers killed four men, including a senior official for Sudan's state-run telephone firm, Sudatel, and stole money and equipment worth US$1.7 million in western Sudan. The robbers opened fire at a truck heading for Nyala, the capital of southern Darfur state, killing three passengers and wounding seven others, before looting the equipment, according to the independent Al Watan daily. 

24: Dubai is at the centre of a major operation to save three tiny leopard cubs orphaned in southern Sudan. America’s courier company TNT is to organise the airlifting of the cubs to a South African game park, Samwari Game Reserve in Port Elizabeth, where they will be housed. 

25: Chester Crocker, has said that the current domestic political situation in the US was hindering peace efforts in Sudan. In an interview with allafrica.com, Crocker said that the situation in Washington was "not a strong basis for the conduct of a serious engagement in a peace process". 

26: President Bashir has warned armed robbers in the western state of Northern Darfur that they will face punishment as per Islamic law if they are caught. Penalties under Shariah include limb amputations and crucifixion if they are caught. 

26: Egypt has shut down the Cairo office of a Sudanese human rights centre critical of Khartoum, a day after issuing a notice that it ceases its operations in Cairo. Sources said that Egypt forced the Sudanese Human Rights Organisation to close its Cairo office in the wake of improving relations between Cairo and Khartoum.

25: Two security analysts, one from the Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Association (SRRA), the humanitarian wing of the SPLA who had been detained by Sudan Peoples Democratic Front (SPDF) forces in Mading, have been released. The two were arrested on June 22 from a WFP plane that had landed in Mading to refuel during a WFP security assessment tour of the area.

26: A freelance journalist detained in Khartoum has been released after two weeks without any charges being preferred against him. Faisal al-Baqir, who was arrested on June 13, told AFP that he was not informed of any charges against him but was just told to go home.

26: Egypt and Libya have handed the Sudanese government and the opposition UMMA party a memorandum containing proposals for reactivation of a peace and reconciliation bid in Sudan. Egyptian Ambassador Mohamed Asim Ibrahim said that the memorandum that he and his Libyan counterpart, Abdel Salam al-Wihaishi, delivered demonstrates their two countries' concern about reaching peace between the feuding Sudanese parties.

26: A six-person fact-finding mission of the General Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) and European Union's (EU) Joint Parliamentary Assembly has arrived in Khartoum to investigate the human rights situation in Sudan. The team will also examine allegations into instances where different parties in the course of the war have violated human rights.

26: Ten African countries, some of them at war with themselves or each other, came together to co-operate over how to share the River Nile. The countries- Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda –which surround the river, streams and lakes from which the Nile springs are backed by the World Bank in an initiative to study how to manage the river for power generation, irrigation, transport, tourism and attract investment. 

26: Sudanese political and armed groups have demanded that President Bashir proves he wants peace. "We appeal (to the government) to step up efforts to end this chain of violence and achieve a just peace that would consolidate our national unity," said Mohammed Osman el-Mirghani, who heads the Democratic Unionist Party. Nhial Deng Nhial who represented the SPLA accused Bashir of not being serious.

26: Detained Mohammed al-Turabi has demanded to be put on trial or released after more than four months of detention, an independent newspaper reported. "Turabi demanded that the judiciary take him to court or release him immediately and cancel the case," reported al-Rai al-Aam newspaper, quoting one of his lawyers.

27: Ten people were killed, after the Sudanese government bombed the SPLA-rebel held town of Raga in Bahr el Ghazal. According to Bishop Caesar Mazzolari of Rumbek, the air strikes involved bombs, which were dropped on a strictly civilian section of the town. 

27: Talisman will not be missed if it pulls out of Sudan because other oil companies would take over its operations, Khartoum’s Minister for Finance, Abdul Rahim Hamdi said. "The effect of their withdrawal from Sudan would be minimal," said Hamdi.

27: Carey R. D'Avino, a key American player in the Holocaust class action suits that resulted in US$7 billion dollars in settlements with Germany, Austria and Switzerland, is intensively investigating a class action lawsuit against Talisman over its operations in Sudan. Promising to use the same argument from the successful Holocaust settlement, D'Avino says that will base his suit on the idea that Talisman and other oil companies in Sudan are knowingly "aiding and abetting human rights violations." 

27: NDA leaders have called for the release of senior opposition members now on trial in Sudan, saying that would help pave the way for a political solution in their war-torn country. “The success of any political settlement requires an appropriate atmosphere to begin a dialogue between the parties, " said Hatem el-Sir Ali, NDA’s spokesman. 

27:Human rights violations are increasing in Sudan, with abductions, arbitrary arrests and the forced displacement of people a daily reality in Africa's largest nation, a UN official has said. "There is a bad climate in Sudan as far as human rights are concerned," said Gerhart Baum, the Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Sudan.

27: A four-month dispute over the expulsion of 13 West African students from a Khartoum university has ended with another 200 also being thrown out. They had been boycotting classes, demanding the re-admission of their colleagues.

27: Prosecutors in Washington have dismissed their case against three high profile activists who had been charged with protesting what they said are acts of genocide, slavery and starvation by the Sudanese government. Former Washington DC Congressional Delegate Walter Fauntroy, radio talk show host, Joe Madison and Hudson Institute fellow Michael Horowitz were charged after handcuffing themselves to the Embassy of Sudan on April 13. 

27: The Women’s Wing Organisation at Howard University, US organised a debate on the issue of slavery in Sudan. Among the invitees alleging "slavery" exists in Sudan were Madison, Fauntroy, a former congressman and Akwuei Malwal, a southern Sudanese activist. Their opponents were Hodari Abdul-Ali, an Afro-American of the Sudanese American Society, Imam Muhammad Magid of ADAMS Centre, and Syed El-Khateeb of the Centre for Strategic Studies in Khartoum. 

28: President Bashir has ordered the release of 148 prisoners to mark the 12^th anniversary of the coup that brought him to power, the official news agency SUNA reported. Sudan's prisons suffer from severe overcrowding and Bashir regularly pardons prisoners on various national and religious occasions. SUNA did not give details of those pardoned. 

28: Thirty-three Ugandans abducted by LRA rebels are to be repatriated from Khartoum to Uganda said UNICEF Sudan. Among the group returning, 17 are under 18 years of age and the rest are adults. 

28: President Bashir has pledged to establish peace even as his army mounts an offensive in the south. Claiming that the June 1989 coup d’etat that brought him to power was designed to “gather and unify the people of Sudan”, Bashir admitted that the war "has obstructed contributions of an important part of Sudan in the economy, displaced a large number of citizens and drained a big part of resources that could have been used for development and services." 

28: Amr Moussa, secretary general of the Arab League, will head to Sudan for a two-day visit in a bid to help prevent the situation in the war-stricken country from worsening. He is expected to discuss with President Bashir the latest developments in Sudan amid the escalation of an SPLA offensive in the south. 

28: Khartoum is opposed to plans reportedly laid out in peace proposals put forward by Egypt and Libya to substitute the existing government with a transitional one. "The talk about transforming the Salvation (the present government) into an interim system and President Bashir into an interim head of state is ruled out, " First Vice-President Ali Osman Taha was quoted as saying by the Akhbar Al Youm daily. 

28: The Sudanese army has claimed to have recaptured a strategic area of the Nuba Mountains. Speaking on state-controlled Omdurman Radio, Armed Forces spokesman General Mohamed Bashir Suleiman said the government troops "liberated" Um Surduba locality and "inflicted heavy losses in lives and equipment on the rebels."

28: Sadiq al-Mahdi has condemned the use of religion to cause political instability and violation of human rights in Africa. "Religion should be shut out of political and public life," he said in a public lecture organised by the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs in Lagos. 

29: Sudan's umbrella opposition group, NDA has approved a revised Egyptian-Libyan peace plan that calls for a transitional government. According to AFP, the leaders in the Alliance "unanimously approved" the plan following three days of meetings in Cairo, NDA spokesman Hatem al-Sir Ali told AFP. 

29: Sudanese women in Canada and US organised a demonstration against the military government in Khartoum and its leader Bashir. Other women demonstrators from Palestine, Morocco and Canada supported them. 

29: President Bashir has said that he would devote the coming year to achieving peace in his war-torn country, said AFP. Addressing a ceremony commemorating the 12th anniversary of his seizure of power in a coup d'etat, Bashir said achieving peace "will be one of our greatest battles in the new year," his 13th in power. 

29: Sudan has decided to renew a special fund to tackle the social impact of the country's economic liberalisation programmes, the Sudanese News Agency reported. The agency quoted Finance Minister Abdel Rahim Hamdi as saying that the nearly US$40 million fund was still to be approved by the council of ministers and might be increased later. 

29: President Bashir has said that the government would set up a "national peace assembly" to review the current state of the peace process in the country, Sudanese television reported. In an address to the nation marking the 12th anniversary of his seizure of power, Bashir said efforts to bring peace to Sudan were "at a crossroads", and that a Sudanese peace assembly would work to develop a peace plan "from inside the country".

30: President Bashir has said a national council would be formed to evaluate various peace initiatives meant to end 18 years of civil war, the government-owned al-Anbaa newspaper reported. Several peace initiatives have failed to end the war.

30: Five people have died from health conditions at a camp for Sudanese who fled recent fighting in the war-torn Bahr el-Ghazal region, a press report said, adding that disease is spreading. Chairman of Ed-Diein camp organising committee, Hassan Abu Bakr Abdullah, said three girls, a boy and an elderly man died of malnutrition, malaria and diarrhoea, adding that the situation was deteriorating in the camp in southern Darfur state in south-western Sudan.

30: Two men were injured when a grenade they had found blew up in their hands in a crowded marketplace in Omdurman, across the River Nile from the Sudanese capital. Khartoum State Police Commissioner General Mahjoub Hassan Saad said the object the two men found at Sheikh Abu Zaid Market turned out to be a grenade, Akhbar Al Youm daily reported. 

30: The SPLA has claimed that its forces killed 165 soldiers after the government army launched two separate attacks on their positions in Upper Nile. It said that the SPLA repulsed both attacks by a combined government and militia forces on June 23. 

July 

1: Even with the war, Sudan’s Kenana Sugar Company is still in operation supplying 60 percent of the country’s total domestic consumption of sugar. Last year the company produced 420, 000 tonnes of sugar, both for export and domestic consumption.

1: Sudanese opposition leaders have said an Egyptian-Libyan peace proposal will not end the since it ignored key demands, including self-determination for the country's southern population. According to Pagan Amum, a spokesman for the NDA, the opposition leadership will not accept any peace plan short of a referendum on self-determination for southerners, dismantling the Islamic regime and forming of a transitional government to prepare for free elections. 

1: Presidential spokesman, Ghazi Salah Eddin Atabani, told the AP that Khartoum has reservations with the Egyptian-Libyan initiative, but "now is not the time" for revealing its position as deliberations were still underway. Atabani added that the government would first familiarise itself with the opposition's responses to the memorandum so as to reach "a mature opinion." 

2: Fourteen people were killed and 11 others hurt when a bus loaded with workers smashed into a truck in Port Sudan on the Red Sea, a daily newspaper, Al-Shafi al-Dawli reported. According to the paper, the accident occurred when the driver of the bus tried to overtake another bus and hit the oncoming truck. 

2: Kuwaiti Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Mohamed Sabah Salim al-Sabah was due to visit Sudan for the highest level Kuwaiti visit to the country since Iraq's 1990 invasion of the Emirate. Relations between the two countries only started to normalise two years ago after a diplomatic freeze occasioned by the Gulf crisis, during which Kuwait accused Sudan of supporting Iraq.

2: More than 8,000 people who fled Raga and Deim Zubeir, now camped in Ed Daein, Southern Darfur, are in urgent need of shelter as they are sleeping in the open. According to relief workers, the arrivals are camped in six sites in Southern Darfur and northern parts of western Bahr al-Ghazal, from where they are expected to continue northward to South Darfur.

2: Sudan mourned one of its most popular singers, Sayyid Khalifa, who died in a heart hospital in Amma, Jordan at age 73. Khalifa came to be known as a singer shortly after he joined the Arab music institute in Cairo in the early 1940s and in later years became a close ally of the country’s many Arab rulers. 

3: Former Prime Minister el-Mahdi has called for caution in the application of Islamic law in Nigeria, arguing that it may not always be in the interest of the people. Delivering a lecture in Nigeria's northern city of Kaduna, el-Mahdi urged Nigerians to ensure that the country's unity and democratic strengths prevailed. 

3: A former SPLA field commander from the Nuba Mountains, Muhammad Ali Tiyah has defected to the government after 16 years with the rebel outfit. He claimed that he was returning to the government side “after realising that the rebel movement has never owned its decision or its agenda, but that it has been executing the agenda of foreign circles dominating the movement.” 

3: A convoy of trucks carrying almost 1, 500 Eritreans left refugees camps in eastern Sudan to Eritrea UNHCR officials said. The convoy is carrying the Eritreans home from Wad Sherife, Gulsa and Lafa camps in eastern Sudan. 

3: America’s Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner has said that the Bush administration's policy on Sudan was based on three main points: ending the humanitarian crisis caused by war-induced food shortages; stopping the use of Sudan as a haven for terrorists and working for a peaceful conclusion to the conflict in the south. 

4: Sudan and Egypt have agreed to form joint technical committees to boost business between the two countries. The decision was arrived at after a meeting between the Sudanese under-secretary in the Ministry of Foreign affairs, Awad al-Karim Fadlallah, and the under-secretary of the Egyptian Ministry of Planning and International Co-operation, Dr Taha Hussein Abd al-Baqi.

4: Ethiopia is to begin importing some 120 tonnes of butane from Sudan next year, the state-owned Ethiopian Petroleum Enterprise has announced. This comes a month after the two countries signed an accord for the export of butane, petrol and kerosene from Sudan to Ethiopia.

4: Kenya has announced that it will soon start importing crude oil from Sudan. Energy Minister, Raila Odinga, said that some local oil firms have signed agreements with Khartoum for the procurement of crude oil.

4: The SPLA has denied that one of its top commanders in the Nuba Mountains had defected to the government side. The group said the alleged defector, Tiyah, was a former "junior SPLA officer of the rank of captain" and was no longer an officer or civilian official of the movement - having been suspended for alleged inefficiency and corrupt practices - before he was "lured back to Khartoum" from Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya. 

4: Sudanese first vice-president, Ali Osman Taha has inaugurated the Al-Mahdia Branch Electricity Station in Karari Province, just south of Khartoum.The US$5 million station will receive and distribute electricity in the surrounding area. 

4: UMMA boss al-Mahdi, was expected to return home from Nigeria without meeting the SPLA delegation as scheduled earlier. A source from the party told Reuters that the SPLA delegation had not arrived in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, although it had was expected to have flown in on June 27.

4: The women department of the UMMA launched a convoy loaded with relief supplies to the displaced people currently camped in al-Du'ayn town in Southern Darfur State. The chairperson of the department, Fatumah Suleiman, said they are set to assist the displaced people in Al-Du'ayn with material and food support as part of the party’s contribution towards the problem. 

5: Hopes for ending the Sudanese war have soared after both sides accepted the Libya-Egypt proposals though with reservations. Amum, NDA secretary general told reporters in Cairo that "We have accepted the joint peace plan. Certainly, it means that we are ready to go to a peace conference," a key proposal in the peace plan. 

5: A total of 29 captives of Ugandan LRA rebels have returned home from Sudan, a daily newspaper, the New Vision newspaper reported. UNICEF officials in Kampala and Gulu Support the Children Organisation received the returnees, including 17 children, at the airport. 

5:Khartoum’s acceptance of the Libya-Egypt peace plan is no major breakthrough, but a welcome step on a long road towards ending 18 years of civil war, read an analysis by Reuters. This is due to the fact that the plan leaves out the key southern demand for self-determination, which the government fears could lead, to secession. 

5: The SPLA has expressed guarded optimism after the government of Sudan accepted the Libyan-Egyptian initiative to end the war. "At least the Libyans have come up with some concrete details like democratisation, a government of national unity, preparation for elections," said Kwaje, spokesman for the SPLA. 

6: Kenya has announced that first consignment of oil from Sudan is awaiting clearance at the Mombasa Port. Bahriya Petroleum of Mombasa imported the oil, after the firm signed an agreement as Sudan Oil Corporation’s sole agents in Kenya. 

6: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged warring parties in Sudan to settle their differences peacefully. A spokesman for Annan said that the secretary general was deeply concerned about the effects on the civilian population of recent military offensive in Bahr el Ghazal.

6: President Bashir has expressed a commitment to peace efforts during a visit to Juba, the main town in the south. Addressing members of the ruling National Congress party in the town, Bashir said: "without peace we cannot achieve development." 

6: The SPLA claims that its forces had killed 48 government soldiers, wounded 35 and taken many others prisoner in an attack that destroyed a government convoy. It said that it had ambushed the convoy near Wangkai, in the oil-producing region of Bentiu where it was heading with a military engineering company to build a railway line to northern Sudan. 

6: The secretary general of the ruling National Congress (NC), who replaced Turabi, has quit his post. Reports says that Ibrahim Ahmed Omer has not been up to the organisational task which had been requested of him a year ago, that is, the bringing back into the fold of President Bashir allies of Turabi and other Islamic militants.

6: A senior Sudanese official has urged the SPLA to declare a cease-fire following their acceptance of an Egyptian-Libyan peace initiative. "The most important step after both the opposition and government approved the Egyptian-Libyan peace initiative is to declare a cease-fire jointly," Abdel Basit Sidrat, political advisor for Sudanese President Bashir, told the Cairo-based Voice of Arabs radio. 

7: Sudan has begun receiving around 40,000 tonnes of food aid from the US to help avert famine in the country, a senior Sudanese relief official said. Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Sulaf Eddin Salih said the food would be distributed by the UN to needy people, the independent Al-Rai Al-Aam daily reported.

7: Sudan has thanked Egypt for its help in reaching peace and maintaining Sudanese unity during talks on bilateral co-operation in Khartoum. "The bond between the two countries is so firm that it can withstand any tests," Sudanese First Vice-President Ali Osman Taha said at the opening session of the higher Sudanese-Egyptian committee in Khartoum. 

7: Khartoum claimed that its forces and loyalist militiamen had repulsed an SPLA attack in the government held area in Western Upper Nile. Army spokesman, General Mohamed Bashir Suleiman, said the army and other regular forces, mujahideen and pro-government militiamen of Paulino Matip took on the SPLA and "inflicted on them heavy losses in lives, equipment and machinery while the remaining rebels took to their heels." 

7: Sudanese Foreign Minister Osman Ismail has said that his government has already handed its response to the Egyptian-Libyan initiative after it was approved by the various political powers in Sudan. In an interview with the Middle East News Agency, Ismail termed such approval as "important and positive step" towards bringing about peace and reconciliation in Sudan.

7: UN personnel have started returning to Wau after being evacuated last month amid SPLA attempts to capture it, a top Sudanese relief official said. Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Sulaf Eddin Salih said UN agencies have started returning to the capital of Bahr el-Ghazal region after pulling out in the wake of an offensive by the SPLA. 

8: Sudan and Egypt have called for the Middle East to be free of the weapons of mass destruction and urged Israel to immediately end liquidation policies against the Palestinians. The two countries made the call in a joint communiqué, in which they said that Israel should sign the nuclear non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and that its nuclear facilities must be subject to inspections of the International Atomic Energy Agency. 

8: Egypt has urged the Sudanese government and the NDA to start work toward ending the war now that they have agreed to an Egyptian-Libyan peace plan. In a joint statement released after a visit to Sudan by Egyptian Prime Minister Atef Ebeid, Egypt and Sudan together stressed the need for an immediate cease-fire in the south, without saying when one should start. 

9: Leading oil companies in Kenya are waiting further instructions from the Ministry of Energy on modalities of the proposed oil imports from Sudan. This comes a few days after a local oil firm indicated that it had already imported oil from Sudan and was awaiting clearance at the port of Mombasa. 9: Sudan’s Kenana Sugar Company has announced plans to invest in Kenya’s Miwani and Muhoroni Sugar companies. Kenana’s Assistant Managing Director, Mohammed El Mardi has said that his company has agreed to supply high-yield cane varieties free of charge to Kenya’s sugar industry that has been ailing in recent years.

9: Below average and sporadic rainfall in many parts of Sudan during the long rains of July-August last year has resulted in poor harvests and water shortages, giving rise to a continuing drought crisis in several areas, according to humanitarian agencies, USAID’s FEWS, has warned. With the onset of the normal 'hungry season' in already drought-affected areas and displacement as a result of further fighting in the ongoing civil war, "the prospects for the coming months are not good", added the survey.

9: The Arab League has welcomed the acceptance of an Egyptian-Libyan peace initiative by concerned parties in Sudan, terming the move as "positive." In a statement issued by the secretariate, the Cairo-based organisation stressed in a statement that it is important to achieve peace and stability in the civil war-stricken country in order to maintain its unity and territorial integrity.

10: Sudan and Egypt have signed a series of trade agreements designed to boost Egypt investments in Sudan. The 20 protocols are also expected to raise the level of co-operation in educational matters. Relations between the two countries have gradually improved since Egypt accused Sudan of sheltering Muslim militants who tried to kill President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia in 1995.

10: Fr. Odhiambo Okola, a Kenyan priest working with Sudanese, has urged the Kenya government to rescind the decision to import oil from Sudan since Sudan government troops and militias have destroyed crop harvests, looted and burnt houses so as to clear people from the oilfields. “As a shepherd among many in Sudan we call upon peace loving people, the international community and neighbouring countries including Kenya to withdraw and stop any purchase of oil from the Khartoum,” he said.

10: The Turabi-led Popular National Congress has called on the government and other opposition factions to act on an Egyptian-Libyan peace plan, saying it offered the best solution to end the war. The party also asked Egypt and Libya to be impartial mediators, adding the two countries' initiative provided a "rare historic opportunity" that should be seized by everyone in Sudan so they could overcome the "political, economic, security and social crises."

10: The Sudanese opposition Umma party has called upon neighbouring countries to back peace efforts in Sudan and to close their borders to anti-government operations. In a statement, the party urged east African states not only to support the Libya-Egyptian peace proposal, but also to close their borders with Sudan to prevent "acts of violence and fighting." 

10:Malaysians no longer need a visa to visit Sudan. Sudanese ambassador Mohamed Adam Ismail has said. Ismail added that the visa requirement for Malaysians was abolished on July 12, and is aimed at improving relations and trade between the two countries. 

11:Christian Aid has condemned Kenya’s decision to import oil from Sudan, reported Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper. The group said that oil in Sudan was being explored at the expense of human life with people being killed and raped and their villages burnt to the ground so as to clear the oilfields.

11: Kenya’s Energy Minister, Raila Odinga has said that private oil companies have the right to import from Sudan. Speaking after a meeting with the US Assistant Secretary of State in charge of Africa, Walter Kansteiner, Raila said it wasn’t the government that is importing the oil but private oil dealers, and there is nothing wrong with that, he said.

11: A south Sudanese political party has dismissed the Egyptian-Libya peace proposal, as "nothing new" since it does not provide for self-determination in the south. The Khartoum Monitor, an English-language daily, quoted United Democratic Salvation Front (UDSF) chairman Peter Abdel Rahman Sule “The joint Egyptian-Libyan initiative has brought nothing new,” as saying. 

11: Sudan’s State Minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr Al-Tijani Salih Fudail, received at his office the deputy representative of the European Union in Khartoum. The two discussed the efforts of the EU with regard to the food and humanitarian situation in North Darfur State, as well as field reports prepared by the Union assessing the humanitarian situation in that region.

12: The Atlanta-based Carter Center has taken the lead in eradication of guinea worm disease in Sudan by distributing nine million pipe filters Sudan has the largest number of guinea worm cases in the world -- more than 54,000 last year 

12: A top US aid official will launch a seven-day mission in Sudan on July 15 to assess efforts to battle famine in parts of the country ravaged by drought and devastated by civil war. Andrew Natsios will travel in northern and southern Sudan and meet government officials and aid workers, the USAID said. Natsios, USAID's Administrator and Special Co-ordinator for Sudan, will also visit refugee camps during his visit.

12: A Sudanese man was killed and two others wounded when a bomb he used as a doorstop exploded at a shop in a village about 50 kilometres south of Khartoum. The shopkeeper killed in the blast had used the bomb to hold the door open, apparently unaware that the object was an explosive.

12: A Tunisian man arrested in Sudan along with six Sudanese on a charge of espionage is wanted in Tunisia for alleged involvement in planning acts of terrorism back home, news reports said. Tunisian ambassador to Khartoum, Mohamed al-Bilaji, said Ali bin Mustafa bin Hamed was a member of the Islamist Nahdha (Rennaissance) Movement and was among a group accused of planning terrorist operations in Tunisia. 

12: Walter Kansteiner met with Garang in Nairobi in what was said to be a get-to-know-you meeting. During the meeting, Kansteiner outlined the policy towards Sudan of Bush’s administration. 

12: Two Nigerians charged with abducting three Americans claimed that they had been trained in Sudan. One of the Americans who underwent an 87-day kidnap ordeal, William Marrow, told the High Court in Nairobi that the accused told him they were working for Osama Bin Landen.

12: Oil firms in Kenya are uncertain about importing oil from Sudan, a newspaper in Nairobi reported. The Daily Nation quoted industry sources, as saying that most of the leading companies will wait for the award of a new tender for the supply of crude oil. 

12: Sudan’s Kenana Sugar Company is finalising plans to invest in two Kenyan sugar factories that have been under receivership. Speaking to AP from Khartoum, Kenana’s Marketing Manager, Bakri Ahmed said that the company was working with sugar authorities in Kenya to determine the nature of the investment in the Miwani and Muhoroni sugar factories in western Kenya. 

12: President Bashir has said he is determined to comply with an Egyptian-Libyan bid to end the war, Sudanese ambassador to Cairo Ahmed Abdel Halim told reporters. Bashir expressed his determination to reach peace and reconciliation "in a manner that maintains the country's unity and safeguards the rights of its people," Abdel Halim said after a meeting with the president. 

12: Sudan's foreign minister said on Thursday that Chinese state oil company CNPC and Malaysia's Petronas would be favoured to replace Talisman if the Canadian company quit the African country's top oil concession. "I can assure you that if Talisman decides to withdraw tomorrow, the first company that is going to get in are those who are now sharing the oilfields with Talisman, like Petronas of Malaysia, like CNPC of China," the minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail, told a news conference on a visit to Nairobi. "All these they are ready to get in immediately. There is no problem." 

12: Sudan's foreign minister urged the United States to pressure the SPLA into agreeing to stop fighting and negotiate a deal to end the war. "We feel a constructive and positive US role for the problems of the south is very vital," said Mustafa Osman Ismail. 

13: The Sudanese government is ready for a cease-fire if the SPLA lay down arms, said its Foreign Minister, Mustafa Ismail. Speaking at a news conference in Nairobi, Ismail also denied allegations that Khartoum was using revenue from the sale of oil to buy more weapons. He claimed that the government was ready to share the oil proceeds if fighting stopped.

13: The US government will not make a stand against the importation of oil from Sudan by Kenya, Kansteiner has said. The diplomat said that he had earlier told SPLA leader Garang that the US believed the cessation of the Sudanese conflict could be reached regardless of the oil question. 

13: The Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), an independent Nairobi based human rights group, has said Kenya’s importation of oil from Sudan will jeopardise Nairobi’s mediating role in the Sudanese conflict. Consequently, the organisation has urged the government to rescind the decision to import oil from Sudan because the participation will be a boost to the “blood-tainted oil trade.”

13: Kenya’s Finance Minister, Chris Okemo has said that the government is yet to finalise discussions on the importation of oil from Sudan and its implications on the local economy. He said that officials from his ministry and others from the Ministry of Energy as well as the Sudanese government are currently involved in serious discussions on the issue.

13: Two Sudanese air force officers were killed when a military helicopter crashed in Sudan's southern state of Wehda. Government officials say the crash was caused by a mechanical failure, while the SPLA forces claim they shot the helicopter gunship near the oil fields in Bentiu

13: The Sudanese army accused the SPLA of shelling a displacement camp in the southern Bahr al-Ghazal region. "A group of rebels shelled a displacement camp in the southern Bahr al-Ghazal province, but our forces retaliated and killed four assailants", army spokesman General Mohammad Beshir Suleiman was quoted as saying by the official SUNA agency. 

13: Sudanese Police Chief and Chairman of the East African Police Chiefs Conference (EAPCO) Elhaji Omar Hidairi has attributed Uganda's poor security situation to weak laws, the New Vision newspaper reported. Hidairi was quoted as saying that Uganda is highly infiltrated by drug trafficking because its laws are friendly to offenders. 

13: A group of ministers and human rights activists said that they have freed more than 6,700 Sudanese slaves this month - almost all women and children. The cost of buying freedom for each of the slaves was US$33 - less than the price of a US$40 goat or a US$ 100 cow in Sudan. 

14: Human rights legislation approved by a US Senate panel was seen as taking some of the heat off Talisman Energy Inc. to sell its Sudan interests. The Senate version of a bill approved by the Foreign Relations Committee would not ban oil companies operating in the war-torn African country from U.S. capital markets. 

14: An official source in the Sudanese presidency has said that the visit which was supposed to be paid to the country by Libyan President, Col Muammar Gaddafi has beenpostponed. It was said that the putting off the visit was meant to give Khartoum time to digest the Egyptian-Libyan proposals on the Sudanese reconciliation. 

14: Sudan's ruling National Congress (NC) party would give up power if it lost democratic elections following any successful peace conference sponsored by Egypt and Libya, its leader said. "If our party is not elected, then we are ready to be in the opposition," NC Secretary General Ibrahim Ahmed Omar told AFP.

14: Secretary-General of Sudan’s ruling National Congress party, Ibrahim Ahmad Omar has asked John Garang to announce his position regarding the Libya-Egypt peace plan. He recalled that two of Garang's aides had expressed acceptance of the plan, as did the leader of the NDA. Omar wondered why Garang himself has so far been keeping mum. 

15: The head of the U.S. foreign aid agency began a weeklong visit to government-controlled northern and rebel-held southern Sudan to assess the humanitarian needs of 4 million Sudanese displaced by the war. Andrew Natsios, who heads the U.S. Agency for International Development, was quoted by the Sudan News Agency as saying his visit was merely for humanitarian reasons and that political issues were to be left to diplomacy between Khartoum and Washington. He is the highest-ranking US official to visit Khartoum since 1995.

15: Khartoum has agreed to lift a 3-year-old ban on entry visas for US officials, Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail said. Emerging from a lengthy meeting with visiting Natsios, Ismail said that his government's decision constituted "a step forward" in relations between the two countries. The ban was imposed after the US made a missile raid on a pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum in August, 1998.

16: The Sudanese government has said that it is ready for immediate talks with the opposition and has urged Egyptian-Libyan mediators to make arrangements for holding negotiations as soon as possible. Presidential advisor for peace, Ghazi Salah Eddin told a briefing of the heads of diplomatic missions and representatives of UN agencies in Khartoum that his government "is prepared to sit down for negotiations with the opposition in 24 hours time," the official Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reported. 

16: Sudan's Finance and National Economy Minister, Abdel-Rahim Hamdi, has promised that the government will continue with the economic liberalization programme that has been in place for the last 10 years. During a lecture at a Khartoum hotel, the minister said that the government would specifically boost the agricultural sector by removing all hurdles facing it. It will also use revenues from oil sales to boost the same sector. 

16: The Speaker of Sudan's National Assembly, Ahmed Ibrahim Al-Tahir, has announced that the country will host a meeting of the Arab Parliamentary Union on July 20. A similar meeting held in Yemen early in July called on all Arab countries to severe political and economic ties with Israel to protest its treatment of Palestinians. 

16: Sudan's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mustafa Ismail, has described the visit of the US Co-ordinator of Humanitarian Affairs for Sudan, Andrew Natsios, as a positive step toward discussing bilateral issues. Ismail added that he hoped that the Sudanese-American relations on all other issues would pursue the same method through visits and getting acquainted with conditions before taking decisions. 

16: Khartoum has lifted a three-year-old ban on the entry of US officials to the country in an effort to improve relations with one of its harshest critics. The ban was imposed in August 1998 after the US bombed a pharmaceutical plant near Khartoum, which it said was producing chemical weapons. Washington also accused Sudan of supporting Islamic militants. Despite the ban, some US officials have traveled to Sudan using diplomatic passports. 

16: A Kenya government mission will travel to Sudan on July 20, to establish the origin of two consignments of crude oil said to have been imported from that country. Initially, news on oil imports from Sudan was greeted with enthusiasm in Kenya, but that has died after analysts warned of the likely revenue implications of tax-free oil from Sudan, which is a member of the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) trade block. Under COMESA rules, imports from member countries are exempt from duty. 

16: Libya President Muammar Gaddafi met in Kampala with the leader of SPLA John Garang in a bid to gain acceptance of the Libya-Egypt peace initiative. A statement issued by the SPLA said that Garang told Gaddafi on the need to address the recommendations of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), an umbrella of Sudanese opposition parties of which the SPLA is a member. 

17: The foreign ministers of Sudan and Algeria have signed seven bilateral co-operation agreements in the fields of economy, agriculture, youth, sports, communication and tourism. The signing came six months after Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika visited Khartoum in a bid to improve relations that deteriorated in 1993 when Algiers accused Khartoum of supporting Algerian Muslim militants. 

17: Sudan's ruling party, National Congress (NC), is prepared to call early elections if all parties adopt the Egyptian-Libyan peace plan, President Bashir said. Holding early elections to form a transitional government to take charge until a peace settlement is in place has been a key opposition demand. Sudan's main opposition parties boycotted the last parliamentary and presidential elections, held in December. The polls also excluded areas controlled by the SPLA. 

17: Khartoum has said it doubts foreign oil companies, notably Canada's Talisman, will pull out of the country fearing sanctions from the US, Sudan's foreign minister was quoted saying. "Numerous signals we have received confirmed that all oil companies, including Talisman, will continue operating in Sudan," said Mustafa Ismail. 

17: A Sudanese family of five was killed when their car was involved in a collision with another vehicle south of Taif, 1,000 km southwest of the Saudi capital, Riyadh, a newspaper reported. The father, mother and their three children were killed in the crash, while the driver of the other car was seriously wounded, the Arabic-language Al-Riyadh reported. 

17: A Canadian archaeologist has helped discover a beautifully preserved 2,000-year-old city built around a huge temple in ancient world of Nubia, reported Canada's The Globe and Mail newspaper. The find, said the paper, could help rewrite the historical importance and complexity of the 3,000-year-old Nubian culture which has long been eclipsed by the pyramids, treasures and omnipotence of ancient Egypt, the Nubians' northern neighbour and trading partner. 

17: Libya President Gaddafi arrived in Khartoum to meet Sudanese leaders in an effort to promote the Libyan-Egyptian initiative. Gaddafi said the peace plan, which calls for the formation of an interim government that will organise a national constitutional conference, had gained support of many African countries. The government and most political groups in northern Sudan have endorsed the initiative but the SPLA has requested the inclusion of a clause on self-determination. 

18: President Gaddafi met with a delegation of the leaders of the UMMA Party, led by its Chairman, former premier Sadiq al-Mahdi. Mahid's party to discuss the Libya-Egyptian peace proposal. Later Mahdi said that the Libyan leader told them that he felt a great response from the Sudanese political forces keen to stop the war. 

18: An American delegation for humanitarian aid, headed by the USAID boss, Natsios, and Sudan's Commissioner -General for Humanitarian Aid, Dr. Sulaf-Eddin Salih, has toured the drought ravaged North Darfur State to get acquainted with the situation. The delegation was also informed of the efforts being made by the government and foreign organisations to overcome the shortage in food and water in the area reported SUNA. 

18: The Sudanese government army claimed that it had destroyed an SPLA camp in North Bahr el-Ghazal, reported SUNA. The army troops "have completely destroyed a camp of the outlaws in north Bahr el-Ghazal and inflicted heavy losses in lives and equipment on them," SUNA quoted the office of army spokesman, General Mohamed Beshir Suleiman, as saying. It did not specify the exact location of the camp. 

18: President Gaddafi has announced his intention of creating a fund for the rehabilitation of southern Sudan, which has borne the brunt of the war. In a meeting with Sudanese government officials, Gaddafi pledged Libya would be the first contributor to the fund that will also involve other African countries. "Experts will in the near future be sent to southern Sudan via Uganda to explore fields of investment there," he said without explaining why he would send the experts via Uganda. 

18: President Gaddafi has said that African leaders were opposed to the idea of partition of Sudan advocated by Garang. "The African leaders are unanimously opposed to the partition of Sudan as such a move will promote separatist calls in their own countries," the Sudanese radio quoted Gaddafi as saying during a meeting with south Sudanese political leaders. 

18: President Gaddafi said that he has discussed the Sudanese issue with a number of African leaders on how to end the war and usher in peace in the country. He said that he had met with President Daniel arap Moi of Kenya, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, all who said they were opposed to the war. 

18: President Gaddafi has said that there is a foreign conspiracy aimed at continuation of the war in Sudan, besides an imperialist plan to weaken Africa by instigating wars and conflicts, SUNA reported. He told southern political forces that continuation of the war is unjustifiable. The Libyan leader affirmed his determination to solve the south problem during the transitional year of the African Union. 

18: Sudan's Presidential Adviser for Peace Affairs, Dr Ghazi Salah-Eddin, has commended the efforts by Gaddafi to mediate Sudan's warring parties. He was speaking during a meeting held between Gaddafi and senior government officials. Angelo Beda, the deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, asked Gaddafi to visit the southern Sudan towns to get a first hand information about the situation. 

19: Import papers for the 2000-tonne oil imports from Sudan held at the Kenya port of Mombasa are ready, the Sudanese Charge d'Affaires in Nairobi, Dirdeery Ahmed has said. He denied that the oil consignment was contaminated, terming the allegation a smear campaign. 

19: Importation of oil from Sudan by Kenya will not affect the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) peace talks, the Sudanese Embassy in Nairobi has said. Instead, the mission said, the action will help reduce poverty in Sudan, an issue that is one of the factors fuelling the war. 

19: Sudan's Minister of Industry and Investment, Dr. Jalal Yousif Al-Degir met with visiting Syrian Minister of Construction, Mohammed Nihad, who is leading a high-ranking Syrian economic delegation to discuss the bilateral co-operation between the two countries. Degir reviewed the steps taken by the Sudanese government to improve the performance of the economy, referring to the stability of the exchange rates and low inflation rates. 

19: Sudan's State Minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chol Deng met with the Secretary General of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs currently visiting Sudan as part of the consultation between the foreign affairs ministries of the two countries. The two discussed the bilateral relations, which were described by Deng as historic. 

19: President Bashir's Adviser on Political Affairs, Dr Gotbi Al-Mahdi met an American delegation, headed by the Director of East and Southern Africa Desk in the State Department, Jeffrey Milton. The delegation arrived in Khartoum for exchange of views within the framework of the Sudanese-American dialogue. During the meeting, Gotbi underlined that the question of the war comes first saying it has to be stopped immediately. 

19: President Gaddafi met with Sudan's First Vice President, Osman Taha, and reviewed with him the situation resulting from the Libya-Egypt peace initiative. They also discussed efforts to be taken to push forward the initiative so that it would achieve its desired objectives. 

19: President Gaddafi concluded a three-day visit to Sudan during which he held talks with President Bashir and other senior government officials. President Bashir, key government officials and members of the diplomatic corps accredited to Sudan, saw him off at Khartoum Airport. 

19: President Bashir arrived in Port Sudan to open an exhibition of the Air College at the Red Sea State port. During the tour, the president also visited the Port Sudan Hilton Hotel where work is in progress. 

19: Sudan's Minister of Roads and Bridges, Mohamed Tahir Aila, has welcomed the co-operation between Sudan and Syria in the construction of roads and bridges. He said this after meeting with the visiting Syrian Minister of Construction and Rehabilitation, Mohammed Nihad. 

19: President Bashir has described the visit by Libyan leader, Gaddafi, to Sudan as an important one as it came in the momentum of the Egyptian-Libyan initiative. He said that Gaddafi's visit provided him with a chance to meet all the Sudanese political forces, especially the southern political forces. 

19: The Sudan Anti-AIDS Network, a coalition of NGOs dealing with AIDS, has said that it will soon launch a publicity campaign highlighting the dangers of the disease. The organisation stressed the need for inter-agency co-operation in spreading awareness of HIV/AIDS, as well of the need for voluntary testing and psychological counselling. 

19: President Gaddafi left Sudan vowing to settle the country's three-decade civil war. "Peace must be found in Sudan as the continuation of fighting only serves the interests of the enemies of Sudan and Africa," he told reporters. 

19: Sudan will prosecute a Tunisian accused of heading a spy network in the country, a senior prosecution official said. The prosecution service is to file a lawsuit with the criminal court against a suspected espionage network led by Ali bin Mustafa bin Hamed, a Tunisian. 

19: Uganda's Director of Operations in the Internal Security Organisation (ISO), Lt. Mwana Kastgazi is to be appointed First Secretary to the Ugandan embassy in Khartoum, a Ugandan daily paper, The Monitor reported. No formal announcement has yet been made on the staff to be posted to Sudan, but highly placed Foreign Affairs officials told the paper that Kastgazi was to be made First Secretary in the mission which will begin operating next month, will be headed by a Charge d'Affaires. 

20: South Africa's oil exploration parastatal, Soekor has been reported to be in advanced stages of negotiating expansion activities in Sudan. The move has been condemned by the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC) who said in a statement that they were "gravely concerned that Soekor was negotiating new concessions in areas that have not yet been 'cleansed' of communities, regarded by the Khartoum government as disposable" 

20: Russian-Belarusian oil company Slavneft and the Sudanese government are to set up a joint venture to implement oil and gas projects in Sudan, the Slavneft press service said. The decision was reached after talks in Moscow between Slavneft management and a delegation headed by Sudanese Minister of State for Science and Technology Jamal Muhammad Hussein. 

20: The UNHCR has suspended its repatriation of Eritrean refugees from Sudan because the rainy season has made roads to their homeland impassable. "The rains have turned dry river beds into swollen streams," said Kris Janowski, a UNHCR spokesman. 

20: The Catholic Bishop of El Obeid Diocese, Macram Max Gassis, conferred with US Secretary of State Colin Powell at the State Department on current conditions in Sudan. The Bishop called the discussions warm and constructive. 

21: A Kuwaiti parliamentary delegation is expected in Sudan early September as a follow-up of another visit to the country that came under the aegis of the Arab Parliamentary Union, reported SUNA. The Kuwaiti delegation will visit under the framework of bilateral contacts and will aim to strengthen relations between the two countries, added the agency. 

21: President Bashir has said that accepting the Egyptian-Libyan initiative would mean something he opposes: separating religion and state, SUNA reported. In a speech, Bashir said that his government welcomes peace "without its price being separation of the state from religion or dismantling of the country or its cultural orientation.". 

21: The SPLA has condemned the declaration by President Bashir that he will not dismantle his National Islamic Front (NIF) regime. In a statement, the group's spokesman in Eritrea, Yasser Arman, accused Bashir of "disappointing the hopes of the Sudanese people and their aspiration for a comprehensive and just peace." 

21: USAID chief, Natsios has warned that parts of Sudan could soon face a crop failure comparable to the catastrophic drought of the 1980s, which killed a quarter a million people. Speaking after the first visit by a senior US official to Sudan in 12 years, he said failed rains threatened famine in parts of the north, while government attacks on villages were creating hunger in the south. 

21: President Bashir attended a football match in Omdurman between the country's two leading soccer clubs, Al-Hilal and Al-Merrikh, as part of the country's celebrations of the 12th anniversary of his 1989 coup. He later presented medals to the two teams and the Shield of Martyr Al-Zubair Mohammed Salih to the Al-Merrikh team, which won the match 2-1. 

21: Sudan's Ministry of Industry and Investment and the Syrian Ministry of Construction have signed a technical co-operation protocol to cover irrigation and dams, land reclamation, roads and bridges, telecommunication, electricity power and contracting. The country's Minister of Industry and Investment, Dr. Jalal Yousif Al-Degair, and the Syrian Minister of Construction, Mohamed Nihad Mashantet, signed for each side. 

21: It was reported that President Bashir is to attend in Medani, Gezira State, a ceremony to graduate secondary school recruits of the National Service. The celebration will mark the beginning of graduation programme for student recruits of the National Service all over the country, which is scheduled to continue until July 30. 

21: USAID boss Natsios has said that Washington wants to see concrete evidence from the Sudanese government that it is making improvements in the country, which is beset by drought and war and not just words. Khartoum has repeatedly said it wants better relations with the US and claims it has improved its human rights record and is allowing greater openness in the country. 

21: The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has provided 20 tonnes of improved seeds for assisting the displaced citizens in Al-De'ain area. FAO representative in Khartoum, Dr. Abdallah bin Yahia, said that the seeds would be distributed among the displaced families. 

21: Sudan has started implementing a US$282,000 food security project funded by FAO to fill in the food gap resulting from drought, SUNA reported. The programme is being executed in North Kordofan State to utilise the available local potentials, said the National Co-ordinator of Food Security Programme at the Ministry of Agriculture, Al-Amin Hassan Al-Amin.

21: President Bashir has reaffirmed the government's keenness on the realisation of peace, national accord and development in the country. Bashir said this while officiating the graduation of 12,000 student recruits of the National Service in Medani town. 

21: President Bashir has launched the National Campaign for Rolling Back Malaria, which starts from Gezira State. According to the Federal Minister of Health, Dr. Ahmed Balal, Bashir's launch is the start of the implementation of the Abuja Declaration on Rolling Back Malaria that was signed last year by African leaders in Nigeria. 

21: The Indonesian Government has consented to the nomination of Ambassador Sidik Yousif Abu-Agla as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Sudan to Indonesia. Ambassador Abu-Agla is a veteran Sudanese diplomat having served as his country's ambassador to Morocco and at one time having headed departments of Islamic affairs and planning at headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

21: A long awaited meeting to reconcile Sudan's warring parties is expected in Cairo "within the coming few days," the head of Libya's foreign affairs parliamentary committee said. Suleiman el-Shahoumi said a "big leap" towards Sudanese reconciliation had been reached. 

22: Sudan has warned it may stop importing Kenyan tea and coffee in retaliation for a ban by Kenya on Sudanese oil imports. Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail delivered the warning saying that any ban will definitely affect the US$150 million worth of tea and coffee that Sudan imports from Kenya per year. 

22: President Gaddafi has stressed the need for the political discourse in Sudan to focus on the preservation of the country's unity. He said that the entire Africa would stand by Sudan if it is threatened, adding that all African states will reject a change of the country's political map. 

22: Mauritania's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Co-operation Aldah Wald Abdi arrived in Khartoum carrying a message from Mauritanian President Muawyia Wald Sidi Ahmed Al-Taye to President Bashir, reported SUNA. The message deals with bilateral relations between the two countries. 

22: Sudan's Foreign Affairs Minister, Mustafa Ismail met with the Ambassador of Jordan to Sudan Mohamed Tawfiq El-Khaldi, on the occasion of the expiry of his assignment to Sudan. The ambassador expressed his gratitude over the co-operation he got during his stay in Khartoum. 

22: The government-supported National Press Council is to organise in collaboration with UNICEF, a seminar on the press and the conventions on women and children rights. The meeting slated for July 23 is expected to bring together leaders of various press institutions in the country.

22: President Bashir's Advisor for Political Affairs, Dr. Gotbi Al-Mahdi, has praised the strong Sudanese-Iranian relations. This was after meeting with Iran's Ambassador to Sudan on the occasion of the expiry of his assignment to the country. 

22: The Leadership Office of the ruling NC party has approved the nominations of Mohammed Hammed Al-Ballah as Governor of Sennar State and Badr-Eddin Suleiman as advisor at the Presidency to supervise the programme of Industrialisation of Africa. During the meeting chaired by President Bashir, the Presidential Advisor for Peace Affairs, Dr. Ghazi Salah-Eddin briefed the attendants on the steps made by the Peace Office towards the realisation of peace in the country. 

22: Sudan's Minister of Finance, Abdul-Rahim Hamdi, has said that his ministry is operating according to basic principles for realising economic progress and social and cultural development. Hamdi pointed out that the policy of liberalisation has had a positive impact on the economy.

22: Sudan's Federal Health Minister, Dr Ahmed Bilal Osman, has underlined the importance of drawing up a national media strategy to disseminate awareness and education on combating female circumcision. Addressing a workshop organised by the Ministry in collaboration with the UNICEF, Osman said religious men and community leaders should be involved in the campaign so as to eradicate the practice. 

22: Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail has pledged flexibility in the government's negotiations to end the war, despite remarks by President Bashir that dismantling his government would not be a price paid for peace. Ismail said that the government would send to Egypt and Libya the names of its team for peace talks, adding that Khartoum would not have reservations about the venue of the conference. 

22: Government aircraft bombed the towns of Magwi, Ikotos, Keyala and Ngaluma in Eastern Equatoria province killing five people and injuring an unknown number. Three children and a woman died in Magwi in an attack involving six bombs while another person was killed in Ngaluma where 14 bombs were dropped. 

23: The bombing of Eastern Equatoria continued with the government hitting Magwi and Keyala again. According to the SPLA, six bombs were dropped on Magwi and eight bombs on Keyala in Torit County. It was reported that the bombs dropped on Keyala injured eight people; five of them seriously and killed several cows. 

23: The Secretary General of the Sudanese Expatriates' Organ, Taj-Eddin Al-Mahdi, met at his office with the preparatory committee for holding the conference of Sudanese agronomists working abroad, reported SUNA. The conference is due to be held on July 25 in Khartoum. 

23: In its regular meeting, under chairmanship of President Bashir, the ruling Council of Ministers has affirmed continuation of the policy of privatisation. This came after the cabinet heard a report, presented by the Minister of Finance and National Economy, Abdul-Rahim Hamdi, on privatisation and made recommendations on how to improve the policy. 

23: Sudan's first Vice President Osman Taha has pledged to bear the costs of 23 kidney patients currently awaiting transplant operations at Ahmed Gasim Hospital, Khartoum North, reported SUNA. He made the gesture to support poor kidney patients. 

23: Sudan's Energy and Mining Minister, Dr Awad Ahmed al-Jazz received at his office a representative of the Turkish Tona Company, which specialises in mining and construction. The company-expressed desire to invest in the electricity and mining domains in the Sudan. 

23: Sudanese Presidential Advisor for Political Affairs, Dr. Gotbi Al-Mahdi, has affirmed the government's keenness on achieving peace and development in the country. Gotbi said this when he received the special adviser of IGAD Secretary, John Yong. 

23: Sudan's State Minister at the Ministry of Finance and National Economy, Dr. Ahmed Majzoub, has affirmed the concern of the ministry to increase the production capacity of women workers. He said this when he received a delegation of the General Union of the Sudanese Women as part of the endeavours to prepare a five-year strategy for poverty alleviation.

23: President Bashir has received a verbal message from the Mauritanian President, Muawiya Walad Sidi Ahmed Al-Tayei, dealing with progress of the bilateral relations and ways of consolidating them for the interest of the two countries as well as regional and international issues of mutual concern, reported SUNA. The Mauritanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Co-operation, Aldah Wald Abdi conveyed the message to Bashir. 

23: The Russian Foreign Ministry has issued a press statement in which it commended the acceptance by Khartoum of the Egyptian-Libyan peace initiative. The statement pointed out that the acceptance of the proposal despite the reservations expressed by some opposition factions would boost the efforts exerted for the realisation of peace in Sudan. 

23: Sudan's Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail is to visit South Africa from July 25 on a three-day official tour at the invitation of his South African counterpart. The ambassador of Sudan to South Africa, Abdul-Rahman Mukhtar, told SUNA that Ismail will hold talks with the South African Foreign Minister, Nkosazana Zuma and later sign an agreement on bilateral co-operation in the political, economic, commercial and cultural fields. 

23: Two South African government departments are divided over plans by a state oil prospecting company, to extend its operations into Sudan. The Department of Foreign Affairs has warned the Department of Mineral and Energy Affairs that plans by Soekor, a state-owned oil and gas exploration and production company, to extend its operations into Sudan, could have embarrassing consequences for South Africa and incur the wrath of international human rights bodies. 

23: Investors from United Arab Emirate are bidding to acquire Sudan's state-owned airlines Sudan Airways, a Sudanese minister has disclosed. While the minister did not disclose further details of the UAE bidders, the probables are understood to include Emirates Airlines. 

24: Khartoum continued with the bombings in Eastern Equatoria province when government aircraft dropped eight bombs in Parajok in Magwi County injuring one person. Two of the bombs fell near the compound of the Norwegian Church Aid while the others fell near a church and a civilian settlement. Four buildings are extensively damaged. 

24: The SPLA has condemned the government for the ongoing bombings of civilian towns and relief centres in Eastern Equatoria province. In a statement, the group admonished Khartoum "for this indiscriminate bombing that has inflicted grave and unjustifiable damage on the civil population." 

24: The Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) has expressed its support for the importation of oil from Sudan by Kenya. The Vice-Chairman of KAM, Manga Mugwe said that the association had no problem with the deal. "All we want is cheap oil. The other politics is between government to government," he said. Mugwe said. 

24: Kenyan oil firms have a chance to invest in the exploration of oil in three concessions that are still available in Sudan, reported Nairobi's Daily Nation newspaper. According to Sudan's Energy Minister, Awad al-Jazz, less than 20 percent of the potential oil production has been explored, leaving vast untapped reserves. 

24: South Africa's state oil firm, Soekor has denied media reports that it intends to prospect oil in Sudan. "The company is not about to enter into any agreement with the Sudanese Government, allowing the company to conduct oil prospecting in the southern parts of that country. Reports to this effect are inaccurate," said Kevin Stallbom, Soekor's Acting Chief Executive. 

24: Kenya's roving conflict mediator Prof. Washington Okumu has said that only an all-inclusive conference will solve the crisis in Sudan. Speaking in the House of Commons of the British parliament, Prof. Okumu said all parties involved in the IGAD initiative should participate in the resolution process. 

24: Sudan and Eritrea have struck a security deal pledging to curb smuggling and illegal infiltration as well as ensure the safe passage of people and goods over their border. Officials from Sudan's Kassala State and Eritrea's Gash region announced the agreement after two days of negotiations in Kassala City. 

24: Sudan's Minister of Foreign Trade, Abdel-Hamid Musa Kasha, is to participate in the ministerial meetings of COMESA, which will be held during July 30-31 in Cairo. Secretary General of the department of COMESA at the Ministry of Foreign Trade, Ms. Eziese Aziz, told SUNA that the meeting aims at reaching a unified stance of the member-states with regard to the issues of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which will be discussed next November. 

24: Manute Bol, Sudan's former NBA player has slipped out of the country and is trying to return to the US, reported AP. Bol had been trying for eight months to leave Sudan, but authorities were unsure whether to allow him to depart. 

25: A MEDAIR team operating in Ruweng County, Western Upper Nile and Unity State has confirmed the presence of wild poliovirus, the World Health Organisation told IRIN. The WHO was "very concerned" about the finding, said the head of the WHO's polio eradication programme for Sudan, Jeff Partridge. 

25: The Egyptian-Libyan peace bid is weak because it ignores self-determination for the south as well as ties between state and religion, an official for the Khartoum-appointed administration in the south has said. "I strongly feel that any initiative aimed at resolving the Sudanese issue cannot succeed fully if the problem of the south is not addressed," Vice-Chairman of the South Sudan Co-ordination Council (SSCC) Theophilus Ochang was quoted as saying. 

25: Foreign Affairs Minister, Mustafa Ismail, left Sudan for South Africa on a three-day official visit. He is to conduct official talks with his South African counterpart, Nkosazana Zuma in matters dealing with the bilateral relations and regional and international developments. 

25: A delegation of Sudanese cabinet ministers, led by Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail, arrived in South Africa for talks with South African government officials. Discussions with South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Zuma will include the conflict in the Sudan, possible South African support for peacemaking efforts there, and human rights issues in the Sudan, South Africa's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Basetsana Thokoane said. 

25: Mustafa Ismail, received a message from his Tunisian counterpart, Al-Habib Bin Yahya, dealing with the bilateral co-operation between the two countries. The message also asked Sudan's support to the Tunisian government in organising the International Summit on Information for the second phase in Tunisia in 2005. 

25: President Bashir has sent a congratulatory cable to the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, on the occasion of the 48th anniversary of Egypt's Revolution of July 23, reported the SUNA. At the same time Bashir, has awarded the Deputy Chairman of the Co-ordination Council for the Southern States, Dr. Theophilus Ochang, the Republic Order (first class), in recognition of his efforts for boosting the peace and development process in the south. 

25: Sudan's National Press Council, in collaboration with UNICEF held a seminar at the council's premises on the issues of women and children in the Sudanese press. The seminar was attended by a number of the mass media leaders, journalists concerned with women and children affairs, representatives of Al-Ahfad University College and the Society of Babiker Badri. 

25: President Bashir received the Chairman of UMMA Party Sadiq al-Mahdi and discussed ways of co-operation between the government and the political forces to make the joint Egyptian-Libyan initiative a success. Deputy Chairman of the UMMA Party Dr. Omar Nuraddiem told SUNA that the meeting affirmed the necessity of exerting more efforts by all parties to realise peace through the joint initiative, pointing out that any other alternatives would be difficult to all sides. 

25: The steering committee of the Sudanese Movement for Children, which comprises governmental and non-governmental agencies and the civil society organisations, is to organise on July 27 a march from Medani town, Gezira State to Khartoum to raise a profile of child issues, reported SUNA. More than 20 Sudanese artists will participate in the march, entitled the Sudanese Campaign for Children. 

25: President Bashir has issued two decrees appointing Badr-Eddin Suleiman as Advisor to the President and Mohammed Hamid Al-Ballah as Governor of Sennar State, SUNA reported. 

25: Sudan's State Minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chol Deng, is to visit the Ugandan capital, Kampala as part of the efforts of the two countries to normalise their relations. This was announced by the Charge d'Affaires of the Embassy of Sudan in Uganda, Suraj-Eddin Hamid, in an interview with SUNA. 

25: A row broke out in a spy trial in a Sudanese court over alleged delaying tactics in a case involving the US. The judge ordered the court cleared of all present for 17 minutes following a heated discussion between defence and prosecution. 

25: President Bashir has repeated his commitment to Sharia law, saying he would not give in to pressure, nor dismantle his government. Addressing a passing out parade for thousands of high school students after a two-month military training in Shambat, a Khartoum suburb, Bashir declared that what he had said at a similar rally at Wad Medani in central Sudan recently "was not a passionate speech." 

25: The supply of cheap Sudanese oil to Kenya would involve much more than a benefit or danger for Kenya's economic future: it could intensify the civil war and render regional peace efforts ineffective, according to the Justice and Peace Task Force (JPTF) of the Sudan Catholic Bishops' Regional Council, the Catholic Information Services for Africa (CISA) reported. The JTPF, it said, maintained that Khartoum's "scorched earth" policy to drive villagers away from their land "could cause an increase in the refugee population in Kenya, which already hosts more than 80,000 Sudanese". 

26: Saudi Arabia has agreed to explore the prospect of military co-operation with Sudan, reported the Middle East News Line (MENL). The agency added that talks have been held between Sudanese Defence Minister Bakri Saleh and Saudi Defence Minister Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz to establish links between their militaries. 

26: The Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan has said that the Sudan Peace Act will be downright harmful to the US since it will lead to exodus of large firms from the US capital markets to European ones. Speaking to the US Senate Banking Committee, Greenspan said: "The clear outcome of such a law would effectively be to move financing from New York to London....I'm most concerned that if we move in directions that undermine our financial capacity, we are undermining the potential for long-term growth in the American economy." 

26: The American Anti-Slavery Group announced that it will sponsor a historic fundraising event in New York's Staten Island to redeem more slaves in Sudan. The function will be attended for the first time by an Islamic organisation, Operation Liberation Muslim Association (OLMA), which recently castigated Khartoum for carrying out a campaign of enslavement and genocide of Christians in Southern Sudan. 

26: President George W. Bush's administration has voiced opposition to a proposed tightening of sanctions on Sudan that would restrict access to US capital, reported Dow Jones Newswires. The US Congress is considering preventing oil and gas companies operating in Sudan from listing equity shares or offering debt in U.S. markets, but a senior official in the Bush government told Dow Jones that such sanctions "would significantly damage our relations with European and African countries that are essential to the peace process in Sudan." 

26: The SPLA has said that it was not represented at the Kisumu peace meeting organised in June by the New Sudan Council of Churches because of technical and substantive reasons. These were the ongoing military offensive by Khartoum, the venue of the meeting, the date and the general planning. 

26: The trial of a Tunisian and six Sudanese men accused of spying and sending false reports alleging Sudan had links with terrorists has started in a Khartoum court. But the presiding judge Mohammed Sir al-Khitm adjourned the case until August 2 because the alleged Tunisian ring leader, Ali bin Mustafa bin Hamad, was not present in court. 

26: The South African government is to play an active role in efforts to end the war in Sudan, Foreign Minister Nkosazana Zuma announced after meeting in Pretoria with her Sudanese counterpart, Mustafa Ismail. "We have agreed to continue working together at trying to find a political solution to the conflict in Sudan ... we will play an active role," Zuma told reporters. 

26: The Forces of United Sudan, which include 28 parties, political organisations, national personalities and Sultans, have declared their stance in support of the unity of Sudan and its people, reported SUNA. They stated that the idea of self-determination does not provide solution for the south Sudan problem, but jeopardise the national unity for all the countries at the region. . 

26: Sudan's State Minister for Finance and National Economy, Dr. Ahmed Magzoub, met a delegation of the Farmers' Union and underscored the importance of the agricultural sector in realising development and combating poverty. He reiterated the importance of reactivating the agricultural sector. 

27: About 25,000 people, including children, actors and politicians, began a two-day march in support of calls for peace in Sudan. The march began in Wad Medani, 150 kilometres Southeast of Khartoum with approximately 1,000 marchers, but reached around 25,000 a few hours after it started. It was organised by UNICEF and the Sudanese Movement for Children. 

27: The UN has urged warring parties in Sudan to grant safe passage to several teams of health workers so they can investigate a recent polio case they fear could lead to an outbreak. UNICEF and the WHO said in a joint statement that a rare case of the crippling disease had been confirmed earlier in Ruweng County in the volatile Upper Nile region. 

27: A group of ministers and human rights activists said that they had freed more than 6,700 Sudanese slaves most of them women and children. The cost of buying freedom for each of the slaves was roughly US$33-less than the price of a goat (US$40) or a cow (US$100). 

27: USAID has warned that the internally displaced persons in southern Sudan remain vulnerable to food insecurity in the country. In its latest Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) on southern Sudan, USAID also said that nutritional surveys by various NGOs indicated declining nutritional standards especially in Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile regions as a result of food insecurity. 

27: USAID boss, Natsios has asked Khartoum to devote some of its oil revenues to feeding its own people. He said if that is not done, international agencies might not be willing to supply much aid. 

28: A two-day peace march highlighting the plight of children in Sudan's civil war ended in Khartoum, but the number of campaigners on the trek had dwindled from 20,000 to just 32. The march north began in Wad Medani on July 27 with politicians, actors and children turning out in force to raise awareness of the suffering caused by the war. 

28: Sudan has inaugurated a new oil field in Unity State and which is producing some 15,000 barrels per day (bpd), the pro-government Akhbar al-Youm newspaper reported. Energy and Mining Minister Awad Ahmed al-Jaz officially opened the new Bambo field, which is located 35 km north of Heglig, the main oil producing area. 

28: China will manufacture 17 ships ordered by Sudan, with all vessels arriving within the next 30 months, according to a contract signed on July 28. The contract marks the first time for China to export inland river ships to Africa and also the first time that Sudan imports.

28: Vice-President Osman Taha has denied there is a row between him and President Bashir, saying unnamed people were pedalling false rumours. Answering press questions as he left a meeting with Bashir, Taha said the rumours were "an attempt by the enemies of the Salvation (government) to create a split within its ranks." 

28: President Bashir joined about 6,000 people on the final stage of a two-day march that aimed to end the country's war and raise awareness about the plight of Sudanese children. "We bless this march and its organisers," Bashir told the marchers who had stopped outside the Cabinet building in Khartoum. 

28: A member of a Sudanese opposition party said his release from detention was a sign that the government was easing its grip on political opposition. Mohammed Hassan al-Amin, a member of the Popular National Congress (PNC), was released on July 27, making him the last of 19 party members freed after almost three months in detention. 

29: Sudan has denounced as a provocation Jewish group's bid to lay a symbolic cornerstone for a new temple outside Jerusalem's Old City. The Sudanese cabinet also denounced the storming by Israeli police of a disputed shrine, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Arabs as al-Haram al-Sharif, after Palestinians hurled stones at Jews praying below at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site. 

29: Sudan is inviting foreign and domestic investors to establish a US$325 million sugar plantation and refinery beside the Nile River in central Sudan. Work would begin by year-end to build a refinery and plant 200,000 acres of sugar cane in White Nile State, some 150 kilometres south of Khartoum, Industry Minister Jalal Yousuf al-Digair said. 

29: President Bashir received a written message from the Chadian President, Idris Deby, dealing with ways of consolidating the bilateral relations in all fields. This came after Bashir received in his office the visiting envoy of the Chadian President and Minister of Defence, Mohamed Nouri. 

29: President Bashir, has received the final report on the elections including the performance of the elections committees, the local and international monitoring, distribution of the geographical constituencies, percentages on the states' participation and the final results. The Chairman of the General Elections Commission, Abdul-Moniem Al-Zain Al-Nahas, who also said that the commission will also deliver a final report on the elections to the National Assembly, presented the report to Bashir. 

29: After months of mounting criticism, the Glasgow-based Weir Group admitted it is involved in supplying vital pump parts to the oil companies in Sudan, reported the Scotland Herald. "Yes we do have a spares contract for the existing pumps. Should they need repaired or replaced we will provide the necessary parts," confirmed Weir spokeswoman Helen Walker. 

29: Badr-Eddin Suleiman and Mohamed Hamid Al-Balla were sworn in before President Bashir as Advisor of the President of the Republic and Wali of Sennar State, respectively. The ceremony was attended by the Vice – President, Osman Taha, the Advisor of the President for Legal Affairs, Badriya Suleiman, Chairman of the Constitutional Court Jalal Ali Lutfi, the Minister of the Presidency of the Republic, Gen. Salah Mohamed Mohamed Salih, and the Minister of the Federal Government Chamber, Dr. Nafie Ali Nafie. 

30: Sudan has freed two senior members of the opposition PNC party after more than two months in prison, a newspaper reported. The move, which some Sudanese say signals a softening of the government's position towards the party, follows the release of a third leading PNC member. 

30: Tirhaga Investment Company, of Sudan's National Pensions Fund exported 60 tonnes of meat to Egypt, reported SUNA. The Minister of Agriculture and Forestry and the acting Minister of Animal Resources, Dr. Majzoub Al-Khalifa who addressed the function at the slaughterer house in Al-Kadarou said that the concerned authorities will establish a bourse for animal and agricultural products. 

30: President Bashir has commended the students sector and their contribution in the national work, reported SUNA. Bashir was addressing the opening session of the conference of the Students Sector of the National Congress (NC) at the party's headquarters during which he lauded the student's support to the general and higher education revolutions, affirming that the state will work to boost the higher education institutions. 

30: President Bashir has said that participation of Sudanese political parties in the government after an agreement is an ordinary matter as the objective is reaching agreement on principles. He explained that the participation of opposition parties in the government is now on since the ruling NC party has accepted the joint Egyptian-Libyan initiative, which is in line to the provisions of the Sudanese Constitution and the Khartoum Peace Agreement. 

30: President Bashir has said that he will attend the inauguration of Chadian President Idris Deby in N'djamena on August 7. According to SUNA, Bashir will participate in the celebrations with an official and popular delegation representing the National Congress, Khartoum State, the Council of the International People's Friendship (CIPF), Women Union and several artistes. 

30: Sudan's ruling Council of Ministers issued a statement saying that the government and people of Sudan are following the developments in the occupied Palestinian lands with great concern. The Council noted that "the atrocities were being practised against the Palestinian People by Israel with the support from some big powers and complete silence from the international organisations." 

30: The Arab Company for Animal Resources Development, the Arab Investment Company, the Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development and the Arab Company for Medicine Industries have agreed with the Jordanian government to establish a factory for the veterinary medicines in the Sudan at the cost of US$100,000. This was announced to SUNA by the Director General of the Veterinary Supplies Corporation, Dr. Mohammed Al-Tayeb Al-Faki, who said that they had agreed to conduct a technical and economic feasibility study for the project by the end of the year. 

30: The various sectors of the ruling NC party began holding their general conferences with participation of the friendly countries, prior to convocation of the party's general conference. The Chairman of the high technical committee for the sectoral and professional conferences of the party, Osman Al-Hadi Ibraim, told SUNA that holding of the sectoral conferences aims at re-building the party on a solid ground that copes with all the current political developments in the country. 

30: Sudan has called on all Arab and Muslim states and peoples, the international community and peace-loving nations to take a decisive action to stop the provocative practices by the Israeli government, which allowed the extremists to lay a cornerstone for the Jewish temple at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, reported SUNA. The Foreign Ministry, said in a statement that Sudan is following with anxiety and indignation the news of the intention of the Jewish Temple Mount Faithful group's to place a cornerstone of the third temple at the mosque. 

30: The Council of Ministers, chaired by First Vice-President Osman Taha has approved an agreement on establishment of the high joint Sudanese-Egyptian committee, which was signed in the first session of the committee, held in Khartoum during July 7 - 8. The agreement aims at consolidating the bilateral relations and co-operation between Sudan and Egypt, consultation on the regional and international issues within the context of the integration and strategic work between Khartoum and Cairo, and following up implementation of the joint co-operation agreements and protocols. 

30: The Council of Ministers has approved a loan agreement between Sudan government and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development for financing the project of Atbara-Haya-Port-Sudan highway. According to the agreement the fund will extend to Sudan a loan of 25 million Kuwaiti dinars to implement the highway project. 

30: Sudan's Federal Minister of Industry and Investment, Dr. Jalal Yousuf Al-Degair has said that Sudan's sugar exports to the countries of the COMESA by the end of the coming five years will reach more than one million tonnes. He said that studies show that the international demand on sugar will leap to 15 million tonnes per year, explaining that the coming period will witness exporting of the Sudanese sugar to the countries of the European Union because of its price concessions. 

31: Sudan's rate of inflation for the month of July has dropped to 6.5 percent from 7.8 percent, reported SUNA. This is according to figures released by the country's Central Statistics Bureau. 

31: Presidential Advisor for Political Affairs, Dr. Gotbi al-Mahdi, has commended Sudanese-Jordanian relations, saying that they have become a model for relations between Arab countries. Gotbi praised the Jordanian ambassador Mohamed Tawfeeq Al-Khaldi for his efforts and diplomatic abilities to boost of bilateral relations between Khartoum and Amman. 

31: Sudan's Minister of Information and Communications, Mahdi Ibrahim, has reiterated Sudan government's acceptance of the joint Egyptian-Libyan initiative without conditions. Interviewed by South Africa TV, the minister said that the government is ready for negotiations at any time. He said that Western circles, ignorant about the real situation, are behind the false claims on slavery practices in Sudan. 

31: Information minister, Mahdi Ibrahim who is also the chairman of the External Relations Sector at the ruling NC party met the Secretary General of South Africa's ruling African National Congress party. The Chairwoman of the Sudanese National Assembly's Peace Committee, Ms. Helen Oleir, and ambassador to South Africa Abdul-Rahman Al-Haj Mukhtar accompanied him. 

31: The Palestinian Ambassador to Khartoum, Abu-Rajaie has affirmed the importance of holding an urgent Arab Summit to discuss the "violations being committed by the Israeli enemy against the Palestinian people and the sanctuaries of the Islamic and Arab nation." Abu-Rajaie said in a statement to SUNA that the meeting of the Arab leaders is a crucial step toward deterring the Israeli aggressions, moving the Arab and international community and drawing attention to the dangers that will include not only Palestine but the whole region. 

31: President Bashir has reiterated the government's keenness to realise peace in Sudan, reported SUNA. This came in his address at the oath ceremony for the new advisors and commissioners. He pointed out that achievement of an accord represents the priorities of the government in the current stage. 

31: President Bashir has praised efforts by the country's Foreign Ministry for strengthening Sudan relations and co-operation with all countries, reported SUNA. This came during a meeting with the country's nominated ambassadors to Indonesia, Belgium and the European Union and Zimbabwe. 

31: An agreement of co-operation was signed between a Russian Slav oil company, Sudan government and the Sudanese Al-Massa Group of Investment Companies on oil exploration and marketing, reported SUNA. A statement issued by the Russian Slav Company indicated that signing was conducted with an official Sudanese delegation to Russia, headed by the State Minister for Science and Technology, Dr. Jamal Mohamed Hussein. 

31: Sudan's Minister of Foreign Trade, Abd Ul-Hamid Musa Kasha, led Sudan delegation to the ministerial meetings of COMESA in Cairo. Secretary General of the Department of COMESA at the Ministry of Foreign Trade, Ms. Eziese Aziz, said that the ministerial meeting was preceded by experts' meetings, which discussed the issue of unification of the stances of the African countries and the preparations for the 4th ministerial council's session of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which will be held in Qatar soon. 

31: Foreign Affairs Minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail, has received a written message from his Qatari counterpart, Hamad Bin Jasim Bin Jabr Al-Thani, dealing with the progress of relations between the two countries, reported SUNA. This was after Ismail received at his office the Qatari ambassador to the Sudan, Ali Bin Mohammed Al-Assiri. The message also touched on regional and international issues of the mutual concern as part of the permanent consultations between the two countries. 

31: The Nigerian government has assured Sudan of its full support in the efforts to find a peaceful solution to the war. Nigeria is committed to a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Sudan, said Nigerian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Duben Onyia, when receiving Sudan's new ambassador to Nigeria, Abdul Rahim Khali, in the capital Abuja. 

31: Uganda People's Defence Forces have been named in aiding the SPLA to forcefully recruit refugees from camps into the rebel ranks, reported a Kampala daily, The Monitor. The revelation was contained in a working paper of the Refugee Law Project (RLP) at Makerere University's Faculty of Law. 

31: President Bashir has said his country will keep Islamic rule, casting doubt on peace plans to create an interim coalition to include non-Muslim parties. "(Egyptian-Libya peace plan) does not mean that the revolution has abandoned its orientation," Bashir was quoted as telling students. 

31: Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmad Mahir received in Cairo the country's Ambassador in Khartoum, Mohammed Aim Ibrahim who presented him with a detailed report on the present conditions in Sudan, reported the Middle East News Agency (MENA). This was in light of the Egyptian-Libyan initiative to achieve reconciliation in Sudan. 

31: More than 40 people have died of sunstroke after temperatures soared in Port Sudan on the Red Sea, reported a daily newspaper. The independent Akhbar Al Youm said the port city is experiencing its most intense heat wave in 10 years, with temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Celsius. 

31: Jim Buckee, chief executive of Talisman Energy, has said that he is hopeful the US will not clamp down on oil companies operating in Sudan. However, he said he would sell his company's project in Sudan for cash if the price is right. 

August 

1: Land-locked Ethiopia has started importing and exporting goods through Port Sudan, a Sudanese embassy official has said. It has been reported that Ethiopia opted for the Sudanese port to curb on its use of the Red Sea outlet of Djibouti. 

1: Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail has said that contacts were underway to prepare a summit of the leaders of Sudan, Egypt and Libya to spur on efforts to end Sudan's civil war. Ismail said the contacts would enable a summit to be held "soon" between President Bashir, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Libyan leader Gaddafi, "with the participation of some Arab and African nations." 

1: Sudan's health ministry has sent an emergency medical team to Port Sudan after 40 people died of sunstroke during a heatwave. Health minister Ahmed Bilal Osman said in a statement that 40 people, most of them elderly, had died from the heat out of a total 106 people so far stricken by sunstroke in the baking conditions. 

1: President Bashir has expressed his government's commitment to a negotiated settlement to the Sudanese war and the building of a new and united country, the Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported. He said he was prepared to negotiate with his political opponents in order to achieve peace and build a homogenous society where differences between the north and the south would be removed and replaced by trust. 

1: Sudanese have reacted differently to President Bashir's commitment to peace, reported the daily Khartoum Monitor newspaper. Opposition groups regarded the speech as a setback in the Egyptian-Libyan joint initiative, which the government had accepted. 

2: French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine has said that France would no longer restrict its activities to its erstwhile colonies and from now on "we are opening up to all the countries in the whole of Africa." He said that war-ravaged Sudan is one country where the views of Paris and Washington differ, but these will be bridged soon. 

2: Sudan's Cabinet Affairs Minister, Maj-Gen Al-Hadi Abdalla met with the ambassador of Iran to Sudan, Mir Ali Asghar Musavi, on the occasion of expiry of his assignment to the country, reported SUNA. The minister discussed with the Iranian ambassador progress of the bilateral relations between Khartoum and Tehran, especially in the economic, investment and commercial exchange domains, besides the ongoing political co-ordination between the two countries. 

2: The Bush administration is giving careful consideration to endorsing special tribunals to prosecute atrocities in Sierra Leone, Congo, Sudan and other countries embroiled in brutal civil conflicts, the new chief of the State Department's war crimes bureau said. Pierre-Richard Prosper, who recently took office as ambassador at large for war crimes issues said that the special courts would be modelled after the U.N.-created tribunals for the Balkans and Rwanda. 

3: African and Arab countries will hold a summit early next month in Libya to discuss ways of ending the Sudanese war, the independent Sudanese newspaper al-Sahafa reported. It quoted presidential political adviser Gotbi Mahdi as saying the summit would help co-ordinate the efforts of two international initiatives to end the war. 

3: Human rights groups have hit a wall in their efforts to use access to US capital markets to force change in Sudan and other countries that are already the target of trade and investment boycotts, reported the Washington Times. Legislation pushed by the activists, who would close American stock exchanges to foreign companies that invest in Sudan, is in deep trouble as a result of heavy lobbying from Wall Street. 

4: During July, Khartoum's indiscriminate bombing campaign in the south resumed its previous intensity, reported IRIN. There were at least 13 aerial attacks by government forces that endangered civilians in July. Five of the attacks occurred in Equatoria Province while Bahr al-Ghazal and Upper Nile Provinces were bombed four times each. In all, there were almost 100 air strikes in the first six months of the year, with attacks on Bahr al-Ghazal, in particular, intensifying in late May and through June. 

4: Opposition parties from both north and south of divided Sudan have voiced support for a mini Afro-Arab summit planned in Tripoli in September, aimed at discussing reconciliation in Sudan. Press reports in Khartoum quoting unnamed diplomatic sources, said a summit meeting of Sudan, Libya, Egypt, Kenya and possibly Uganda, South Africa and Nigeria will be convened in September 1. 

4: The presidential political adviser, Dr Gotbi al-Mahdi has announced that an Afro-Arab summit on peace in Sudan is scheduled to be convened mid-August, while the national dialogue forum would start in early September, reported SUNA. He said that the government had already named its delegates for the dialogue forum. 

5: Sudan's Ministry of Irrigation has warned of flooding along the Blue Nile River in Sudan after heavy summer rains hit the country, newspapers reported. A ministry statement said the level of the Blue Nile has continued to rise and called on people living on its banks to be on alert. 

5: The governments of Ethiopia and Sudan are expected to meet soon and conclude a preferential trade agreement. The consultative meeting, which will be held in Khartoum, will deal with, among others, issues concerning the exemption of some items from customs duty. 

5: President Bashir will visit Uganda this month at the invitation of Uganda's President Museveni, newspapers reported. The independent al-Ayam said Bashir would travel on August 19 to take part in an economic summit with a number of other African leaders. 

5: Sudanese government troops Sunday repulsed an attack by the SPLA forces in Unity State, the government army official spokesman said. General Mohamed Beshir Suleiman was quoted by SUNA as saying "an infiltrating group of outlaws attempted an act of aggression in Western Nuer region, west of Mayom town." 

5: Khartoum backed the Egyptian-Libyan bid for peace and reconciliation in the country, while expressing reserve over a return to the political situation overturned in 1989. "We accept the initiative out of self-confidence rather than a desire for a return to a system ruled out by history," said secretary of the ruling NC political sector Ghazi Salah Eddin at a meeting of some 20 pro-government political parties. 

5: A Protestant church has entered the fray of the Sudanese conflict calling for trust-building, equality, justice and freedom of religion in order to achieve peace. Bishop Andrew Mbugo Elisa, leader of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sudan, said in a conference on peace sponsored by his church, that it has appealed to the government, the opposition and the SPLA to stop the war and establish peace. 

6: Flooding has destroyed some 175 houses as well as mosques and health centres in five villages along the Nile in northern Sudan, a press report said. The Al-Dastour newspaper did not mention any casualties but a statement from the Ministry of Irrigation warned that residents and farms along the Blue Nile and northwards along the main River Nile were under threat from possible major overflowing due to early rains in Ethiopia. 

6: Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher has said that there was no agreement to hold an Afro-Arab summit to discuss reconciliation in Sudan later this month, as reported from Khartoum. Maher told reporters: "I have no knowledge about this summit and there is no agreement on holding such a summit." 

6: President Bashir has hit out at foreign aid organisations branding them a substitute to colonisation. "The foreign aid organisations come to a country for implementing the colonisation programme which contradicts the national interests of that country," Bashir said at an official ceremony opening installations in Khartoum. 

6: Consultations have reportedly taken place between the secretary of Libya's General People's Committee for African Unity and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Mahir on the current steps to solve the political crisis in Sudan, within the framework of the Libyan-Egyptian initiative, reported the Libya News agency, JANA. It said that this took place during a telephone conversation between Ahmad Mahir and the secretary. 

7: First Vice President Osman Taha has said that Khartoum will not accept any proposal that would loosen its grip on power. He said that his government ``would not issue its own death certificate'', adding that the opposition cannot expect to achieve more at the negotiating table than they did on the battlefield. 

7: The SPLA said that its forces had attacked the country's main oil producing facility at Heglig, but Talisman disputed the extent of the damage. SPLA spokesman, Samson Kwaje said that the attack caused casualties and destroyed oil installations, but Talisman said the offensive failed. 

7: A Khartoum criminal court has resumed the trial of a Tunisian and six Sudanese accomplices accused of spying for Tunisia. Lawyer Mustafa Abdel Qadir, defending the main accused, Tunisian Ali bin Mustafa bin Hamed, cross-examined the prosecution's investigator and first witness, over statements made during the opening session. 

7: A Sudanese government military spokesman has denied that an attack by the SPLA on Heglig had done any substantive damage. General Mohamed Beshir Suleiman was quoted by SUNA as saying his troops stood up to the infiltrators, "drove them back and tightened control of the area" which he said was "now quiet and secure". 

7: A Member of Parliament for Lamwo County in Uganda's Kitgum District, Eng. Hillary Onek, could lose his seat if the High Court of Uganda upholds an election petition filed July 27 questioning his citizenship, reported a daily paper, The Monitor. The petitioner, Dr Anthony Okullo, who lost the elections in Lamwo, avers that Eng. Onek should never have been nominated in the first place as he is not a Ugandan citizen but a Sudanese born in Nyolo-Pakala village, Magwi County in Eastern Equatoria. 

8: Blue Nile floods have swept 15 villages in eastern Sudan's Sennar State and parts of the regional capital Singa, causing millions of dollars in damage, the official SUNA reported. No casualties were reported in the state, but State Governor Mohamed Hamid al-Bellah said flooding still poses a great threat to the region and appealed for government aid for those left homeless. 

8: Egyptian Irrigation Minister Mahmud Abu Zeid telephoned his Sudanese counterpart Kamal Ali Mohamed to offer assistance in dealing with the floods if required, SUNA reported. Egypt has been diverting as much excess Nile water as possible into the country's canal systems. 

8: The Bush administration is set to oppose legislation that would bar foreign oil companies doing business in Sudan from listing on US stock exchanges, fearing that it could set a damaging precedent for political interference in US capital markets, reported the Financial Times of London newspaper. A draft statement of administration policy warns that the sanctions provisions in the legislation would "set a dangerous precedent for future political interference in capital markets based on labour, environment, non-proliferation or other issues", according to a US official familiar with the document. 

8: The US State Department has criticised a proposed law that seeks to bar firms which do business in Sudan from American capital markets as contrary to American free market principles. "We believe that prohibiting access to capital markets in the United States would run counter to global, United States support for open markets," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. 

9:The SPLA has said that it will neither attend any dialogue conference nor pay attention to comments on an Egyptian-Libyan initiative, the local Al-Raai Al-Am reported. But it said that it would clutch to self-determination and separating religion from the state in achieving the country's reconciliation. 

9: Nile Basin countries have set up a trust fund to boost regional development in the region, reported a Uganda daily, The Monitor. Patrick Kahangire, director of water development in the Ugandan Ministry of Lands, Water and Environment, was quoted as saying that the fund was established during a meeting of the International Consortium for the Co-operation on the Nile (ICCON) held in Geneva, Switzerland on June 26-28 this year. 

10: The Sudanese government has started posting staff at its diplomatic mission in Kampala, Uganda, a daily paper, the New Vision newspaper reported. An official from the Ugandan Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying that Khartoum has already sent some staff members to Kampala, but that details about the postings were yet to be released. 

10: The SPLA announced that the flow of oil had stopped at Heglig, which the group raided a few days earlier. According to a statement issued by the SPLA Spokesman, Samson Kwaje, due to "the extensive damage inflicted on the main oil facility, the production and flow of the oil has come to a complete halt.". 

10: A legislation has been introduced in the US Congress seeking to compensate the owner of the El-Shifa pharmaceutical that was bombed the US in 1998, reported the Washington Post. But legislators are hesitant to take on this controversy in which the owner of the pant is seeking US$30 million as compensation. 

11: A total of 48 captives of Uganda's LRA rebels have returned home from the Sudan where they had been forced into rebellion, a daily paper, the New Vision reported. The abductees, five of them infants, two children aged three and six, 18 teenagers, 12 men and 11 women arrived at the Entebbe International Airport on August 10. 

11: Sudanese government troops have repelled an attack by the SPLA in the Nuba Mountains area, the army was reported as saying. Sudan's official SUNA news agency quoted army spokesman Mohamed Bashir Suleiman as saying the army inflicted heavy casualties on SPLA forces at Um Hudaib in the eastern part of the Mountains. There was no word on when the attack took place. 

11: Sudan's First Vice-President Osman Taha has ruled out any disagreement between Egypt and Sudan over the separation of religion from the state, which has been a long-standing precondition by the SPLA to launch into settlement talks. This was after Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Mahir had said that Sudan's unity should not be based on religion. 

12: The Catholic Church in Kenya has entered the fray over the government's plan to import oil from Sudan, reported a weekly newspaper, The Sunday Nation. It said that the Nairobi Archdiocese has organised a special mass for the war-torn Sudan on August 19 at the Holy Family Basilica, where the church is expected to make its position clear on the planned imports. 

12: The secretary-general of the Ministry of Energy and Mining, Hasan Muhammad Ali al-Tawm, announced that the ministry's plans to intensify oil exploration and increase production to 450,000 b/d by the end of the year 2005, reported SUNA. He indicated that the plan aims also at development of the oil industry to make added value for the Sudanese crude, (and assist the) attraction of investors to explore oil in central, north, eastern and western Sudan. 

12: Egypt's Foreign Affairs Minister, Ahmad Mahir claimed that all Sudanese parties, including the SPLA had accepted the Egyptian-Libya peace initiative. But Mahir refused to comment on demands by Garang that more items to be added to the initiative. 

12: Arab League Secretary-General Amr Musa held talks with Libyan Secretary of the General People's Committee for African Unity Ali al-Turayki. Talks covered the latest developments in the Palestinian territories and efforts exerted to establish peace in Sudan in addition to events in the Comoros Islands and the emergency Arab information ministers conference to be held soon in Cairo. 

12: The Sudanese government has accused the SPLA of rejecting the Egyptian-Libya peace initiative. Presidential peace adviser Ghazi Salah Eddin Atabani said that a recent statement by the SPLA demanding the initiative include a clause on self-determination for southerners and the separation of religion from the state "clearly indicates that the movement, contrary to its previous declarations, does not want peace to be achieved under the joint initiative" 

13: President Bashir has pardoned 22 military prisoners and reduced the sentences of others to mark Army Day on August 14, army spokesman Mohammed Bashir Suleiman said. The spokesman gave no indication of their crimes or whether they were Sudanese army, government militia or rebel troops, saying only that military courts had tried them, SUNA reported. 

14: Khartoum has acquired, and is using, surface-to-surface missiles in its war against the SPLA, reported The Guardian of London. Proof that the government has missiles comes in videotapes recovered from a government cameraman who accompanied an offensive into SPLA-controlled southern Blue Nile province at the end of May. He died on the battlefield. 

14: Faced with the prospect of retaliation by Sudan, the Kenya government has conceded to oil imports from fellow COMESA member states. A lengthy statement in Parliament by Foreign Affairs Minister Chris Obure said Kenya would treat Sudanese oil imports in the context of the COMESA agreement, implying that oil can be imported without duty. It was reported that the decision was made after a meeting between President Moi and Garang. 

14: The 4,000 tonnes of oil imported by the Kenya-based Bahhriya Petroleum Ltd, have finally been released, reported a Nairobi paper, Daily Nation. Tax authorities on suspicion that it did not originate from Sudan had held the consignment. A certificate of origin from the Sudanese Chamber of Commerce was rejected, forcing the importer to seek fresh papers from Khartoum. 

14: Sudan celebrated the 47th Anniversary of the Armed Forces Day, which coincided with the date when the first Sudanese, Gen. Ahmed Mohammed Hamad, assumed the post of the General Commander, reported SUNA. President Bashir affirmed in an address that the occasion is a celebration of the achievements and gains realised by his government for the Sudanese people and their Armed Forces. 

14: The Secretary of the People's Committee for African Unity in Libya, Dr. Ali Abdul-Salam Al-Teraiki concluded a two-day visit to Sudan during which he had talks with President Bashir, his advisor for Peace Affairs, Dr. Ghazi Salah-Eddin and Foreign Minister Dr. Mustafa Ismail, reported SUNA. Dr. Al-Teraiki said that they discussed Arab and African issues, particularly the Sudanese situation. 

14: Sudan's Minister of Information and Communications Mahdi Ibrahim is to participate in the extraordinary meeting of the Arab ministers of information, which is to be convened at the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo on August 15. SUNA reported that the meeting will discuss the situation in the Middle East. 

14: Sudan's Minister of Energy and Mining, Dr. Awad Ahmed Al-Jaz, received a delegation of an Indonesian petroleum company, which expressed desire to invest in Sudan. The minister briefed the delegation about accomplishments in the petroleum and energy fields in Sudan, affirming prevalence of investment opportunities in Sudan at these fields. 

14: The US has persuaded Sudan to wait another month on its call for the U.N. Security Council to lift limited sanctions against the African nation, diplomats told Reuters. The two countries were to have come to an agreement in August after a year of delays on the embargoes, imposed in 1996 to force Sudan to hand over suspects in an assassination attempt against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. 

14: Sudan has called upon warring Somali factions to seek a peaceful resolution to their differences after a decade of anarchy that has decimated the small east African country. The Sudanese foreign ministry expressed its government's regret over the recent intensification of armed conflicts in Somalia, warning it would "only lead to further escalation". 

14: A Khartoum criminal court trying a Tunisian and six Sudanese accomplices accused of espionage resumed sitting and announced the verdicts would be delivered on August 25, a court official said. The court heard the testimony of a defence witness for one of the Sudanese defendants, the source said. 

14: Sudanese opposition factions have been invited to Libya, to discuss an Egyptian-Libyan peace initiative, aimed at ending the 18-year civil war in Sudan, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said. "The Sudanese parties have been invited to attend a meeting in Tripoli to discuss with us how to activate the initiative," Maher was quoted as saying. 

14: A number of Arab funds have agreed to help finance the building of a hydroelectric dam for northern Sudan that will yield 1,250 megawatts of electricity. Irrigation and Water Resources Minister Kamal Ali Mohamed said development funds have together pledged US$780 million to help finance Merowe dam on the Nile River in northern Sudan. 
 

15: President Omar el-Bashir has urged the organs of the ruling National Congress (NC) party to work to unite the people of the Sudan by increasing the party’s membership, reported the official Sudan News Agency (SUNA). Addressing the party’s Social Sector, Bashir said that his Islamic regime is a revolution of social change.