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 s