2: Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika has expressed his country s willingness to help achieve national reconciliation in Sudan and called on government and opposition to sit down to negotiations for the sake of the nation s unity. President Bouteflika, who arrived in Khartoum on a three-day state visit, made the offer in a speech delivered at a celebration he attended with Sudanese president to mark the 45th anniversary of Sudan s independence.

7: President Bashir has extended the of emergency in Sudan for a year, the official Sudan News Agency SUNA reported. The agency gave no reasons for the extension of the emergency, which was first declared on December 12, 1999, during Bashir s power struggle with former parliamentary speaker Hassan Abdallah al-turabi, an Islamic ideologue who was once a key ally.

7: The Sudanese air force is avoiding targeting civilians but will not allow rebels to hide behind human shields, foreign minister Ismail said in remarks published in Cairo Egypt. The use of air power will continue against the rebels wherever they are and we will take care to avoid civilians, Ismail said in an interview with the Egyptian government news Al-Mussawar.

8: The American Anti-Slavery Group (AASG) has announced that Sudanese government forces enslaved 72 black African women and children during slave raids, on January 5. AASG President Dr. Charles Jacobs condemned the raids as war crimes, and called upon President Clinton to explicitly condemn the raids and demand the immediate liberation of the enslaved civilians

8: Egypt s Foreign Minister, Amr Moussa, is due to arrive in Sudan in a further effort to end the country's 17-year civil war. During his two-day visit to Khartoum, Mr. Moussa is expected to meet president Bashir, as well as foreign minister Ismail. Egyptian officials said the talks would focus on re-activating the Cairo-Tripoli peace initiative for Sudan, as well as the crisis in the Middle East.

9: The Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC) plans to drill 17 exploration wells and 25 development wells in its four blocks in southern Sudan this year, an executive of consortium member Talisman Energy Inc. said. Ralph Capeling, Talisman's general manager in Sudan, told reporters the consortium, in which Talisman holds 25 percent, expected to spend about $66 million on exploration, $133 million on development and $73 million on production out of a total upstream budget of around $360 million in its Heglig and Unity fields in 2001.

10: Eyptian foreign minister Amr Mussa has said in Khartoum, that the time was right for a peace conference involving all Sudanese factions. Before leaving Khartoum, he told journalists that Egypt was "seriously working toward holding a meeting soon of inter-Sudanese reconciliation, because the time is now more favourable than before.

10: Large numbers of displaced people around Upper Nile in southern Sudan were putting pressure on local populations whose food needs were not secure, and fears were growing of a humanitarian crisis, UNICEF spokesman Martin Dawes said Humanitarian agencies have indicated that food needs will increase in Sudan, and contingency preparations are underway to address the approaching crisis.

10: The human rights organisation Amnesty International has expressed concern about eight opposition political activists and two lawyers who have reportedly been held without charge in solitary confinement for over a month. In an urgent alert issued, Amnesty said one of the detainees, Ghazi Suleiman, a lawyer from the Sudanese Human Rights Group, had been hospitalised twice since his arrest and there was concern that he had been tortured in custody.

11: Severe drought in western and parts of southern Sudan has put at least 900,000 people at risk of famine, a United Nations official said. "Wells have dried up for lack of rain in Northern Darfur and the water table is very, very low," Nicholas Siwingwa, deputy country director of the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP), told reported after a recent visit to the area.

13: The Bishop of Diocese of Rumbek, southern Sudan, His Lorship Caesar Mazzolari, presided over the burial of two Sudanese sisters who drowned on January 8, 2001 when trying to cross a flooded canal on their way from school. Apout Mabuoc, 14, and Achol Mabuoc, 8, were pupils at Nairobi s Langata Road Primary School.

15: This year s Sudan Catholic Bishops Regional Conference (SCBRC) annual meeting will be held at Dimesse Sisters, Nairobi, from January 22-27. The SCBRC brings together the six bishops working in the SPLA territory in southern Sudan, the Nuba Mountains and southern Blue Nile.

16: Sudan's Islamist government refuses to ratify an international treaty on women's rights as it contradicts national traditions, President Omar el-Bashir said in remarks published. President Bashir told a rally held in Khartoum to celebrate his re-election as president last month that he found parts of the treaty "contradicted Sudanese values and traditions," the official Suna news agency reported.

16: The British Archbishop of Canterbury has protested to the government about the destruction of the Episcopal Church Cathedral in Lui, Western Equatoria, southern Sudan. In a letter to the Sudanese ambassador in London, he said the bombing of the church "highlights the continued targeting of undoubted civilian centres by the government of Sudan."

16: The European Commission has approved Euro 15 million (US$14.1 million) to maintain delivery of humanitarian assistance to Sudan. A statement posted on January 15 by the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) said the assistance would aim to reduce morality rates among the most vulnerable sections of the population and to promote increased self-reliance in the war-affected society.

16: The main peace forum for halting Sudan's 18-year-old civil war is not enough by itself to end the suffering of Africa's largest country, Egypt's foreign minister Amr Moussa has said. "Everyone should know that the Sudanese problem will not be solved via the IGAD initiative alone, or IGAD's partners in European and world capitals," Moussa told a seminar at Cairo University.

16: Six Sudanese opposition leaders accused of conspiring with the US to destabilise the Khartoum government are soon to face trial, justice minister Ali Osman Yassin announced. On December 6, 2000, Sudanese state security said in a statement it arrested six members of the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at a meeting they were holding with Glenns Warren, a diplomat in the US Embassy in Khartoum. The six were identified as Ali el Sayed of the Democratic Unionist Party, Mohammed Suleiman of the out-lawed Higher Council of Trade Unions, Joseph Okelo, the NDA Secretary, Mohammed Mahjoub of the Sudanese Communist Party, Mohammed Widatalla of the Arab Ba'ath Party, and Stance Jimmy, an assistant to the NDA Secretary.

17: A Sudanese has been arrested in Nairobi, Kenya, over the smuggling of Kenyans to Saudi Arabia. He is alleged to have airlifted hundreds of Kenyans to the Middle East to work in dubious jobs.

18: Seven Sudanese opposition members risk the death penalty if they are found guilty of charges of espionage and plotting violence against the government in Khartoum, Sudan's top prosecutor said. The seven members of the NDA were arrested when the authorities raided a meeting in Khartoum with the US diplomat Warren, who was expelled amid renewed tension with the US.

19:Hundreds of horseback militia have looted a Red Cross clinic in an attack on a village in southern Sudan, a spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said. The Arab militia known as Murahaleen, loyal to the government, attacked the village of Chelkou in the far north of Bahr el Ghazal province on January 12, the ICRC's Nairobi-based spokesman Michael Kleiner said.

19: Sudan's judiciary has temporarily freed a newspaper editor jailed for refusing to publish an apology for an article deemed "defamatory", her newspaper Al-Rai Al-Akher reported. "The judiciary ordered the release of Ms (Amal) Abbas temporarily until the appeals court hears the case", said the paper, adding that she was freed after spending a day in Omdurman women's prison near Khartoum.

19: Amid the thunder of outdated mechanical presses, journalists at a Sudanese newspaper hunch over computers to pick foreign news off the Internet. While technology has lagged in some areas, growing access to the Internet, mobile telephones and satellite dishes means Sudan's radical Islamic government cannot hope to keep educated people from peering through new windows on the world.

19: A leading South Sudanese opponent has warned that the South would break away if Khartoum continued the Islamist policies of the past 10 years." Mixing religion with politics is not conducive to the unity of Sudan," former vice president Abel Alier said during a panel discussion at the University of Khartoum.

24: Three passports were seized from one of the eight people alleged to be trading in humans, a Nairobi court heard. The passports were issued in 1979, 1986 and 1996 to Mr. Ali Ahady, his lawyers told the court.

25: The UN under secretary general for humanitarian affairs Tim Franklin has arrived in Khartoum for a five-day official visit to Sudan. He will attend the meetings of the UN- Sudanese technical committee pertaining to the "life line" programme in southern Sudan.

23: Stung by criticism for its role in Sudan's nascent oil industry, Canadian oil company Talisman Energy is turning its attention to providing basic amenities and monitoring human rights abuses in the country's southern war zone. Talisman executives see activities such as providing schools, clinics and water wells as frontline defences against maraunding rebels as well as answering critics at home.

25:Kenya's high court has dismissed a plea by four suspected Sudanese criminals to block government orders requiring them to leave Kenya. Justice J. K Mitey said he was satisfied that the commissioner of police had complied with court orders requiring him to produce in court eight suspects alleged to have been involved in slave trade.

25: The four remaining Sudanese accused in Kenya of trafficking in human beings will now be deported. They lost their bid to be released pending their filing briefs challenging the deportation.

25:Sudan's production of oil would increase to 400,000 barrels per day in the year 2005, compared to the current production of 200,000 barrels daily, said the secretary-general of the ministry of energy and mining, engineer Hasan Ali al-Tawm. He made the remark in a lecture he gave at the University of Khartoum, within the context of a cultural week organised by the faculty of economic studies. Engineer Al-Tawm announced that Sudan's share of oil, which is currently ranges between 40-50 per cent, will increase to 65 per cent by doubling of the oil production

26: US president George Bush has sent a message to Sudanese president Bashir, signaling a possible thaw in relations, a Sudanese newspaper said. The message, due to be presented to Bashir by US charge d'affaires in Khartoum, comes in response to goodwill message Bashir sent Bush after he was named US president-elect, the independent al-Rai al-Aam said.

26: Some organisations hostile to Sudan are currently staging a campaign against the country, Sudan's minister of external relations, Dr Mustafa Osman Isma'il, says. He indicated in a press statement that these circles are now reactivating their hostile campaign against Sudan due to a number of reasons, including their intention to distort the image of Sudan before the new American administration and to pave the way for a visit by SPLA leader John Garang to Europe for raising funds for his movement.

26: Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni has said he had been right to send soldiers into Democratic Republic of Congo and he was prepared to send them into Sudan too if necessary. In a speech to mark the 15th anniversary of his rise to power after a lengthy civil war, Museveni said Uganda's military presence in Congo was needed to defeat rebels opposed to his government operating along the border between the two countries.

28: The SPLA has said its forces destroyed three oil wells, a drilling rig and three army camps and killed dozens of government troops in southern Sudan. It said in a statement that its forces had fought government troops in the Altimish district between Wangkai and Miyoum on the Heglig_Miyoum road in western Upper Nile state.

29:Sudan has denied a claim by SPLA that they had destroyed three oil wells and killed dozens of government troops in an attack on southern oil fields. An oil industry source said four government soldiers and 13 rebels had been killed in the fighting.

29: Sudanese minister of state at the ministry of external relations, Gabriel Roric Jur, said there would be a referendum over the status of the south. He told Radio France Internationale, in a broadcast monitored by the BBC on January 27, that a referendum would improve relations between north and south, whatever the outcome.

30: Police fought off an attack by Sudanese rebels on a major highway linking Khartoum with the Red Sea town of Port Sudan, a newspaper reported. Police units guarding the strategic 1,200 km (745-mile) road lost three men and sustained one injury in the attack; the independent al-Sahafa quoted a police spokesman as saying.

31: A federal advisory panel on religious freedom overseas is hoping its findings of mass murder and rape of black Christians in Sudan will prompt the Bush administration to impose tougher sanctions on the East African nation. In its first recommendation to the new administration, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom urged the United States to clamp down on the Sudanese government for atrocities allegedly committed against the country's black Christian minority by the Islamic majority.

2: After the presidential and legislative elections, which took place in December 2000, Sudan is preparing for the trade unions elections. In this regard, the leading bureau of the national congress party, led by president Bashir discussed preparations for the trade unions elections and sub committees were formed to follow up this matter.

2: The leader of al-Ummah Party Sadeq al-Mahdi has stressed that his party studied the possibility of taking part in the elections but he postponed taking a decision to this effect until he makes sure of the nature of the elections. The People's Congress party took a similar decision.

2: Canada has sharply protested Sudan's amputations of the right hands and left legs of at least five men convicted of criminal offences. Foreign affairs officials called in Sudan's charge d'affaires in Ottawa, and also expressed concern to the Sudanese government, after human rights groups launched a protest against the five amputations, and 19 more that were on scheduled.

4: A group of 30 Christian Missionaries working in the non-government-held areas in southern Sudan has denounced the war in the region as "immoral and tragic," and appealed for the fighting to stop. "We have come to the unanimous conviction that the situation of war in Sudan at the present stage has become immoral and a tragic farce," the Comboni Missionaries said in a statement after their recent meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, on February 19, 2001.

5: A delegation from the New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC) has completed a weeklong tour of South Africa, during which they appealed to the South African government to play a greater role in the Sudan crisis. The Catholic Bishop of Diocese of Torit, Paride Taban, led the delegation.

6:A Sudanese defector from the militant Islamic group founded by Osama bin Laden has testified in the trial of four men charged in the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in East Africa. The identity of Jamal Ahmed al Fadl, one of bin Laden's first recruits, was kept secret by prosecutors until his testimony.

8: A Sudanese court imposed crippling fines on two journalists and, when they could not pay them, sentenced them both to prison terms. On February 4, 2001, Amal Abbas and Hassan Ibrahim, editor-in-chief and journalist respectively with the independent daily newspaper Al Rai el Akhar, were fined 15 million Sudanese pounds (approx. US$5,800) each for an article that accused the local authorities in Khartoum state of squandering

8: A former aide to bin Laden testified in the 1998 East Africa embassy bombing trial he was dispatched in 1993 to try to buy uranium, which prosecutors say the terrorist leader wanted for a nuclear weapon. Jamal Ahmed Al-Fadl told jurors that bin Laden was prepared to spend $1.5 million for black-market uranium as part of his holy war, or jihad, against Americans.

9: Russian oil companies have been given the go-ahead in principle to look for oil in eastern Sudan, a press report said. The independent Al Rai Al Aam daily quoted Sudanese energy and mining minister Awad Ahmed al-Jaz as saying a memorandum of understanding has been reached with Russian companies granting those unnamed firms licences to look for oil in two areas of the country, which has an outlet to the Red Sea.

9:An American Muslim leader of Sudanese heritage has been denied the right to attend a meeting on Capitol Hill designed to "galvanise US policy on persecution in Sudan." (The Washington Times, February 8, 2001 A representative of Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) told Imam Mohamed Magid of Herndon, Va., that his request to join the meeting in the congressman's office had been denied.

12: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has arrived in Khartoum to participate in a two-day third summit of the community of the Sahelian-Saharan states. He told reporters on arrival that he expected the summit to consolidate the projected African union as well as the Sahelian- Saharan community.

13: Armed robbers attacked a bus in western Sudan, killing seven people and wounding five, the independent al-Ayam newspaper reported. The daily said the gang intercepted the bus about 60 km (38 miles) west of al-Fasher, the capital of Northern Darfur state, near the border with Chad.

14: Leaders from the Community Sahelo- Saharan States (COMESA) rose from their third summit meeting in Khartoum, with a declaration supporting moves towards an African union. The "Khartoum Declaration" stressed the importance of the Syrte Declaration adopted by the 36th OAU Summit in Lome, and launched a vibrant appeal to all African states not yet up-to- date with the Union Treaty to sign and ratify it before the next Syrte confab due early next month.

15:Five Sudanese had limbs amputated for armed robbery as the Islamist government resumes a practice applied only once in its 12 years in power, a human rights group and diplomats said. The five men each had their right hand and left foot cut off on January 25 and January 27 at Khartoum's Kober prison where another 19 prisoners were awaiting the same fate, the sources said.

15: African leaders left Khartoum after trumpeted support for Libya, but paid little attention to drought threatening their religion. A closing statement called for Libya to be compensated for years of UN sanctions, which it said should be lifted immediately because the Lockerbie trial has come to a close.

16: With 10,000 signatures and a dusty 250-kilometre (155-mile) trek behind them, two young Swedes hope to teach the world how the people of southern Sudan are crying out for peace after 17 years of war. In the latest stage of an awareness-raising campaign, Adreas Zetterlund, 25, and Tommy Larsson, 29, both lay evangelical preachers, walked from Rumbek to Kotobe, in southern Sudan's Bahr-el-Ghazal province from January 29 to February 10

17: The Sudanese minister of livestock minister Abdullah Muhammad Sayed Ahmad has announced the consent of both Syria and Lebanon to import the Sudanese meat after they leant about the assurances on health and quarantine measures pursued in Sudan. In a statement to the Sudanese daily al-Anbaa the Sudanese minister added that his ministry is seeking in its 2001 plan to open new markets also in the countries of West Africa.

17: The Sudanese daily al-Anbaa unveiled that the forces of the rebellion Mushar had killed Veter Kouj, the former governor of the Sudanese Mayout provinces who was kidnapped by the Southern Sudanese rebellion movement in 2000. Well-informed sources said the paper added that the killing of governor Kouj came as a result of his rejection to co-operate with Mushar forces and the forces of the SPLA.

18: Sudan has released two leading human rights lawyers detained for criticising the arrest of opposition figures, their families said. Ghazi Suleiman and Ali Mahmoud Hassanein were released, 72 days after their December arrest for speaking out against the arrest of seven opposition politicians detained during a meeting with US political officer Glenn Warren. Warren was expelled, but the seven are to stand trial on charges of spying and undermining the constitution.

18: Sudan's foreign minister said Khartoum hopes better ties with its neighbours and increased aid to the south will deprive rebels of cross-border bases and speed the end of the 18-year-old civil war. "The more relations with neighbouring countries improve, the more this positively reflects on their relationship to the southern issue," Mustafa Osman Ismail told reporters.

19: Some 680 Sudanese refugees have arrived in the northwestern Ugandan district of Yumbe and been transported to the Imvepi Refugee Settlement, said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The process of registration is still in progress and the total number of recognised refugees will be available only at the completion of the process, said the document.

21: Leading Islamist leader and former speaker of the Sudanese parliament, Hassan al-Turabi, has been arrested. Armed men picked him up at his Khartoum home, party officials said. There has been no official confirmation of the incident yet, but the arrest follows an understanding struck by his party and the main southern rebel group.

23: The United Nations has warned that starvation threatens over half a million people in Sudan. According to a statement from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 600,000 Sudanese are threatened with starvation in the extremely drought- and conflict-affected country. The total number of people in need of some food assistance is three million.

23: The United States should organize a peace initiative for Sudan because efforts by the African nation's neighbours to end an 18-year-old war there ``hold no promise,'' says a report compiled with State Department and UN participation. “The time has come for the United States, in league with others, to make a strong push to end Sudan's war,'' said the report by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

24: Warning of an "impending catastrophe" in Sudan, where 600,000 people are at immediate risk of starvation, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator has expressed deep concern about the "very poor response" of donors to the country's deteriorating humanitarian situation. Kenzo Oshima noted that in addition to the pressing survival needs of several million displaced and vulnerable people affected by war and conflict, widespread drought was now threatening hundreds of thousands of others.

24: The editor and publisher of an independent Sudanese newspaper were arrested and held by police at their office for seven hours before being released on bail, the paper's managing editor said. Albino Okeny, editor-in-chief of the daily Khartoum Monitor, and publisher Alfred Taban, ``were arrested because of an article published in the paper on December 5 by Taban,'' said managing editor Nhial Bol. It was not clear what charges the two faced.

23: More than 7,000 people have fled fighting near southern Sudan's oil fields in the past 14 months, bringing the total to 36,500, a UN official said. "The oil-rich area of Sudan has seen a great deal of population displacement and in fact is currently one of the most insecure areas in Sudan," Nicholas Siwingwa, deputy country director of the World Food Programme (WFP), said in a statement.

24: Media reports of the arrest of Hassan al-Turabi, considered by many the world's leading Islamic militant, failed to mention Turabi's ties to Osama Bin Laden or the whole vast, sinister world of Islamic terrorism. Yet if the Islamic terrorist movement can be said to have a single mastermind, a single centralising and directing intelligence, it would belong to al-Turabi. The "real signal of change" took place late last year when Bashir suddenly made lightning raids and arrested opposition leaders, not close to Turabi, on charges that they had been conducting secret talks with "a foreign power," the United States. Bashir forced the US diplomatic representative in
Khartoum to withdraw.

24: President Bashir has reshuffled key cabinet ministers while continuing to crack down on an opposition group run by a former aide. The president, who was re-elected in December for a second, and last, five-year term, dismissed finance minister Mohammed Khari al-Zubeir and replaced him with Abdel Rahim Hamdi, a former finance minister, in a decree published by the government-owned al-Anbaa newspaper.

26: The Sudanese army and Muslim scholars came out in support of president Bashir’s crackdown on a jailed Islamic theologian and former parliament speaker whose group signed an agreement with the SPLA. Senior army officers called on Bashir to deal firmly with Turabi, his former ally, who was arrested after his Popular Congress Party signed a memorandum of understanding with the SPLA to jointly force the government into stepping down.

26: Turabi is being held in solitary confinement in a rat-infested prison cell with no access to newspapers or writing material, his wife has said. Wisal al-Mehdi told Saudi Arabia's al-Watan newspaper that her husband was being held in a prison cell "full of rats" and that he was in solitary confinement with no access to "newspapers, magazines, papers and pens".

27: Sudan's president has called former ally Turabi a liar and criticised his agreement with a rebel group in his first comments about the Islamic thinker since his arrest. ``Don't let him lie to you,'' President Bashir told a unit of the Popular Defence Forces, a pro-government militia, before they headed to the front line in Sudan's 18-year-old civil war, which pits the government and the Muslim north against the rebels in the mostly Christian and traditionalist south.

28: the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has airlifted More than 2,500 former child soldiers from volatile areas of southern Sudan to rehabilitation centres in a unique operation, the agency said. The boys, who have been demobilised from the SPLA in the southwestern Bahr el-Ghazal region, had gathered near airstrips to board transport planes operated by the UN World Food Programme.

28: The US state department found human rights gains in Nigeria and Ghana last year amid a number of rights setback in Africa including Sudan where the government’s record was rated as “extremely poor”. In its annual report on rights conditions worldwide, the state department said the Sudanese government “continued to commit numerous serious abuses”.

1: Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has underscored the need for strong
economic ties with Sudan, arguing that this would enhance bilateral cooperation between the two neighbours. Meles, the Ethiopian News Agency reported, launched his appeal while receiving a 25-strong Sudanese business delegation at in Addis Ababa. He said economic ties between the two countries had gained momentum since the recent signing of trade agreements that led improved road and rail links between the Ethiopia and Sudan.

1: Visiting Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid has denied that his country was in turmoil, saying trouble was localised, a Sudanese daily reported. "I cannot deny that there are problems in parts of the country, but it is a large country and problems in one part do not mean that the whole of Indonesia is in turmoil," the independent al-Ayam newspaper quoted him as telling a joint news conference with president Bashir.

2: Sudan has criticised the Unicef for secretly airlifting from civil war frontlines more than 2,800 child soldiers who had been serving with SPLA, a newspaper said. Announcing the evacuation, Unicef said SPLA had handed over the children, aged eight to 18, and Unicef would now try to trace their families.

3: The factional fighting in southern Sudan could widen into a devastating famine unless the US intervenes diplomatically with rebel forces and others, Human Rights Watch said. In a March 1 letter to US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Human Rights Watch called on the Bush administration to use its influence with the southern factions to stave off the potential crisis.

4: President Bashir has stressed, before his departure of the Libyan Sirte town after participation in the extraordinarily African summit, that the African union has become a reality. He said, in a press statement that the number of the member states in the proposed union has increased to 36 countries.

5: Talisman Energy Inc. had been considering selling its oil operations in Sudan amid controversy pressuring its stock price, but signals from the new US administration about possibly loosening sanctions has given it reason to hang on, Talisman's chief executive said. Talisman CEO Jim Buckee, speaking after a presentation to an energy conference in New York, did not dispute recent speculation that a few select rival oil companies had taken a look at its stake in the Sudan project's operating consortium.

6: Sudan’s minister of energy and mining Dr Awad Ahmad al-Jaz has described the decision of Talisman to continue its oil investment in Sudan as evidence on prevalence of security and appropriate investment climate in the country. He said in press statements that Sudan is open for whoever desires to invest in it, and that it is secured for whoever wants to stay or work in it, pointing out that Sudan is rich of unlimited resources.

10: The US government is turning a spotlight on one of the world’s most sorrowful conflicts-the grinding 18-year-old war in Sudan. Secretary of State Colin Powell has met with senior State Department officials to talk about crafting a US policy for ending a war long accompanied by starvation, disease the taking of slaves and human rights abuses by both sides.

12: The new man appointed by the United Nations to investigate human rights in
Sudan, Gerhart Baum, has begun his first mission in the country. Mr. Baum met the prominent human rights activist, Ghazi Suleiman, of the Sudanese Group for Human Rights. Mr. Baum replaces Leonardo Franco, who resigned after submitting a report last year to the UN detailing allegations of gross human rights violations in the country.

12: Dozens of gunmen looted and attacked an aid agency compound in southern Sudan, kidnapping four aid workers and killing two people, an official said. Two Kenyans and two Sudanese, working for the US-based Adventist Development and Relief Agency, were taken hostage after the attack, said Nick Trent, programme director for ADRA's southern Sudan operations. A woman and 12-year-old girl were killed.

13: The wife of detained Sudanese Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi said in remarks published that she planned to discuss her husband's plight with the U.N. special human rights envoy in Sudan. Turabi was arrested along with close aides in February for signing a controversial agreement with the main rebel group in Sudan's 18-year-old civil war.

15: "There is perhaps no greater tragedy on the face of the Earth today than the tragedy that is unfolding in the Sudan," Secretary of State Colin Powell told the House International Relations Committee. Powell was referring to the campaign of genocide the Sudanese government is conducting on its ethnic and Christian minorities, and dismissed that Sudan would be a priority under the Bush administration. The Washington Post highlighted the tragedy in Sudan, urging the new administration to take action before the situation worsens.

15: The Sudanese and Russian governments have concluded a deal, estimated to be worth more than $600m, which will see Sudan manufacturing Russian battle tanks in exchange for oil concessions for Russia. It is understood that Sudan will pay the Russians for the rights to assemble TU-72 tanks and that the Russians have undertaken to invest all the proceeds in oil exploration and development. Russian oil companies have already been given the green light to prospect in Eastern Sudan.

16: Sudan’s main sugar manufacturer has denied claims the country lacks capacity to export to Kenya under Comesa’s zero tarrif regime. The firm denied that Sudan was flouting the trade bloc’s rules of origin, and announced that with its capacity of 450,000 tonnes a year, it was ready to sell bigger volumes to Kenya.

16: Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir has rejected a recent report by the Washington-based Strategic Studies Centre, proposing the formation of two political entities in the north and south of Sudan as a way out of the protracted civil war in the country. “We categorically refuse both content and implications of the paper,” Bashir told reporters in Khartoum, after a meeting at the offices of the ruling National Congress.

17: Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi has affirmed the commitment of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to resolving the Sudan conflict, the local media reported. The president said the war, which has claimed over 1.5 million lives, is of major concern to the international community.

18: Eight Sudanese opposition leaders accused of espionage and plotting to wage war against the state stood trial in a case that could further strain US-Sudanese relations. The Sudanese government said in December it had caught opposition leaders - members of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), an umbrella organisation for opposition groups - meeting with an American diplomat to allegedly plan an armed uprising.

18: Opposition leader Sadiq el-Mahdi, Sudan's toppled prime minister, said he had accepted a US invitation to discuss democracy and his country's 18-year civil war with US officials. The war is between Arab-descended, Muslim northerners, who control the military-dominated government, and African southerners, who mostly practice Christianity and indigenous religions.

19: Renowned Sudanese zoologist, Mohammed Abdallah el Rayyah, whose specialties are natural life and tourism, has launched a new private reptile zoo in Khartoum. Rayyah's Zoo, established under the company name of 'Umam', displays various types of indigenous and imported snakes, lizards and tortoises.

20: The former speaker of Sudan's parliament, Hassan el Turabi is now almost a month behind the bars with no clear indication about his political fate. Turabi was jailed on February 22 when his party - the Popular National Congress (PNC) - signed a memorandum of understanding with the rebel SPLA.

20: Turabi's family and his PNC operatives have seized the opportunity of the recent visit by the UN human rights rapporteur for Sudan, Gerhart Baum to raise the issue of his imprisonment. In a memo to the UN envoy, the party said; "Turabi and his brothers were met with harsh treatment, were denied beds and made to sleep on the ground."

21: Turabi will be charged with a criminal offence, Sudan's president said. Turabi, an Islamic theologian, was arrested on February 21 in Khartoum.

22: The NDA and the SPLA said a fresh round of talks with the government could only be held if certain conditions were met. SPLA spokesman Samson Kwaje said that the conditions included the release of all political prisoners, the lifting of the state of emergency, and the suspension of clauses in the 1998 constitution relating to Islamic Sharia. Other conditions include the lifting of the Public Securities Act, and removing the ban on political parties, Kwaje told IRIN.

22: The government of Uganda is ready to enter fresh peace talks with the Sudanese government and rebels of the Lords Resistance Army (LRA), the minister of state for northern Uganda rehabilitation, Omwony Ojwok, said. "We hope to quickly resume dialogue with Sudan government which will help us have direct access to the leadership of Lords Resistance Army rebels," Omwony told eight ambassadors from the European Union at his office at Eden Road in Gulu.

22: Saudi Arabia beheaded a Sudanese man in the holy Muslim city of Mecca for killing a compatriot, the official Saudi Press Agency said. It was the 22nd execution in the conservative kingdom this year. The execution was delayed until the victim's children reached the legal age to decide on the murderer's fate. Under Islamic law a victim's immediate family can accept compensation known as "blood money" and spare the life of a convicted murderer.

22: A panel formed by the US Congress has recommended that more stringent trade and financial sanctions be imposed on Sudan in response to human rights abuses in that country. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom said the situation in Sudan has deteriorated since the commission reported last May that the impoverished African country was "the world's most violent abuser of the right to freedom of religion and belief."

23: The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said that while Sudan had shown increasing willingness to cooperate with international agencies in the field of human rights, there was continued concern over abductions, displacements and discrimination. It said there were continuous reports and allegations regarding the abduction by armed militia of primarily women and children belonging to different ethnic groups.

23: A bipartisan group of US lawmakers called on President George W. Bush to name a special peace envoy to Sudan. Headed by House of Representatives Republican Leader Dick Armey of Texas, they said the US must make it a top priority to help bring to an end Sudan's 18-year-old civil war, blamed for more than 2 million deaths.

26: Sudan residents in the southern Sudanese town of Wau say armed nomads known as the Murahiliin have abducted dozens of women and children. The residents told the BBC that some 3,000 men arrived in the city three weeks ago on trains and horseback and have been carrying out robberies and other attacks. The Murahiliin are reported to be demanding US$150 per person from relatives of the kidnap victims.

26: A key Republican leader in the US House of Representatives has said that the persecution of Christians and other minority ethnic groups in Sudan is "horrible" and the US must get involved. House Whip Tom DeLay said the White House view is that "we won't stand for what's going on in the Sudan" and asserted "we need to do whatever is necessary to stop this carnage that's going on in the Sudan."

27: House Majority Leader Dick Armey, taking on Sudan as a cause, urged President Bush to name a "nationally distinguished leader" as special envoy to the war-ravaged African nation. "The situation in Sudan is rapidly getting worse and must be seriously addressed before the scale of death and destruction increases," Armey wrote in a letter also signed by three other Republican and two Democratic lawmakers.

28: Detained Turabi said in remarks published that he would resist attempts by the government to send him into exile. “I will not leave. I will stay in Sudan,” Mr. Turabi told the Saudi Arabian Al-watan newspaper in answer to questions from the newspaper passed to him in prison by his wife.

30: Sudan is on the verge of a huge food crisis with three million people at risk of hunger as fighting and drought sweep the country, the World Food Programme (WFP) said. The Rome-based WFP said food in affected regions was expected to run out by mid-April while drought and civil war continue to plague Africa’s largest country.

31: President Moi of Kenya said he suggested to Sudanese President Bashir that there was need to allow the freedom of religion and worship in the country’s constitution. He called for speedy resolution to the conflict in Sudan to enhance stability in the region.

4: Founding member and former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rev. Walter Fauntroy, and the nationally syndicated broadcaster, Joe Madison witnessed the liberation of 2,953 Black Sudanese slaves through the Christian Solidarity International (CSI)-sponsored "Underground Railroad" during a fact-finding visit to Sudan on March 29-April 1, 2001.

5: Sudan’s deputy defence minister and 13 other high-ranking military officers were killed as their plane crashed on takeoff in southern Sudan, state television reported. The television said the deputy minister, Col Ibrahim Shamsuldin, and the others had been touring a southern military area and were headed back to Khartoum at the time of the crash.

6: The Sudanese army blamed a sandstorm for the crash of a plane that killed 14 senior officers, including the deputy defence minister who directed the war in southern Sudan. A non-commissioned officer also died while 16 military personnel survived the accident, which occurred when the pilot of the Russian –built Antonov, overshot his landing amid poor visibility at Adar Yiel airport, the army said.

6: Sudan’s deputy defence minister and 14 other military personnel were immediately buried after a plane crash, which has thrown the capital into mourning, newspapers and television, said. They were laid to rest in the oil-producing area of Adar Yiel, after the crash in southern Sudan, the independent al-Ayyam paper said.

7: The death of a key player in the 1989 coup that brought President Bashir to power is another blow to the Sudanese leader after most of his confidantes have either resigned, died or were pushed aside, an analyst said. The deputy defence minister, Col. Ibrahim shasul-Din, one of Bashir’s top army aides, was killed along with 13 other high ranking military officers when their plane crashed on take-off in southern Sudan.

7: On April 5, 2001, Sudanese gathered at London’s Waterloo Park between 10:30 am and 12 noon for a demonstration against the National Islamic Front regime; the oil companies and the overall British policy on Sudan. The idea of going to the streets was a brain child of the Sudanese-British Human Rights Forum, an ad hoc committee created by Lady Baroness Cox last year to bring Sudanese to talk about their problems and how they can maintain advocacy in the British Parliament.

7: The opposition Ummah Party leader, Sadiq al-Mahdi, has called for an urgent probe into the crash of a Sudanese military plane at Adar Yiel, southern Sudan. Mahdi criticised the decision to put capable military commanders on board a single aircraft. He described the martyrs as "national resources" of all the people of Sudan and the armed forces.

8: The freeing of a Sudanese opposition leader has raised hopes for the release of other accused anti-government conspirators, a leading party figure said. Mohamed Hassan al-Amin, head of the PNC’s constitutional department, was detained in February along with PNC leader Turabi and three senior party members. Al-Amin was released without explanation.

10: Despite rising pressure from grassroots groups and Congress, the administration of President Bush is unwilling for the moment to impose new sanctions or take other actions that could worsen already difficult ties with Sudan, according to knowledgeable sources. The most it will do is begin spending some of the US$10 million which Congress appropriated last year for political and technical support for unarmed civil society groups active in the southern part of the country under the control of the SPLA.

10: Sudanese priest has accused the West of ignoring the appalling human rights situation in his country for selfish reasons. The interest in Sudan’s crude oil reserves seemed to be more important than the plight of the oppressed Christians and traditionalists. Hilary Boma - former treasurer of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Khartoum - was speaking at a meeting of the International Society for Human Rights, April 7-8 in Konigstein near Frankfurt (Germany). The priest was incarcerated in solitary confinement for nine months in 1998 and 1999.

12: Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has pledged to help resolve the conflict in Sudan, Sadiq el Mahdi, a former premier announced. "President Obasanjo has conveyed to me his intention to start intensive contacts with concerned parties for a comprehensive political solution to the armed conflict in the country," Mahdi declared on arrival from a Nigerian visit.

12: Sudan and Ethiopia have created a joint committee to speed up the proposed inter-connection of their electric networks. The Sudanese national corporation for electricity's director of planning and projects Sayed Ahmed Mohammed said in Khartoum that the committee's first meeting would be held in Addis Ababa next month.

12: Sudan has denied charges that it was producing chemical weapons with Baghdad and that Iraqi pilots were flying air raids in the Islamic regime's war against the rebel Christian and traditionalist south, a newspaper said. "This is an old allegation by the rebel movement for misleading world opinion," an unnamed official in the government spokesman's office told the independent Al-Ayam daily.

12: Leading Arab and Pakistani Muslim delegates have begun arriving in Khartoum in a bid to reconcile President Beshir and Turabi, party officials said. The rivalry, which burst into the open in 1999, has torn apart the Islamist movement, which has ruled Sudan since it took power in a military coup 10 years earlier.

12: The US has persuaded Sudan, which is on the US list of nations sponsoring terrorism, to delay its call for Security Council action to lift limited sanctions until August, diplomats said. The sanctions, imposed in 1996 to force Sudan to hand over suspects in the 1995 assassination attempt against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, were never actively enforced, but they nevertheless remain on the books.

13: The European Union has expressed its satisfaction over the agreement between Kenya and Sudan to organise a regional summit on the peace process in Sudan. In a statement, the 15 EU member countries said they had taken note of President Moi's visit to Khartoum on March 29-30 with the aim of boosting the peace process in Sudan under the auspices of the IGAD.

14: Sudan-based Reuters and BBC correspondent Alfred Taban, who was arrested in Khartoum is still being held in an unknown location, his family said. A family source said, "he's still being held by the security services" and that his relatives "have no news of him and do not know where he is being held."

14: Southern Sudan, developmentally neglected by successive Khartoum governments, has become a hotly contested area with multinational oil companies, local authorities and Muslim interests vying for a piece of the oil revenue pie. When the US-based international oil company Chevron first came to Sudan in the 1970s, it started exploring for oil in areas designated by the central government that excluded southern Sudan, said Abel Alier, a former vice president of Sudan under Nimeiry.

14: Authorities flogged 53 Christians who were convicted of rioting over efforts to move their Easter ceremony out of a public square, the Sudanese Council of Churches said. Four women and two children received 15 lashes each before they were released. Authorities gave 20 lashes each to 47 men and sentenced them to 20-day jail terms, a council official said on condition of anonymity.

16: The movement of refugees across the Uganda and Sudanese borders has been blamed for increased cases of sleeping sickness in some areas of northwestern Uganda, and health authorities say these movements make it difficult to control the spread of the disease. Uganda’s assistant commissioner for health services in charge of vector disease control said most of cases were identified among the Sudanese refugee population in the area.

17: The authorities in Sudan have freed a prominent journalist, Alfred Taban, who was detained almost a week ago. Mr. Taban, who works for the BBC and also for Reuters, telephoned colleagues from his home in Khartoum. He said he had been treated well during his detention.

18: Seven Sudanese refugees died while 42 others were admitted to various hospitals after fighting erupted at Kenya’s Kakuma Refugee camp. Another 150 were wounded when two rival groups of the Dinka community- one from Bor and another from Bahr el Ghazal regions of southern Sudan – engaged in a fierce fight following a disagreement.

19: The SPLA said its forces killed 257 government troops in major battles in southern Sudan in the last few days. It said in a statement received from Asmara, Eritrea, that its forces killed 187 troops and wounded 130 in heavy fighting in southern Blue Nile state, about 600 km (375) southeast of Khartoum.

20: Amnesty International took note of the presidential decree pardoning 47 people arrested over last Easter and called for an impartial and independent investigation into the shootings, beatings and arrests by the Sudanese riot police on April 11, 2001. "Amnesty International is concerned that at least nine people, including children, were flogged as punishment, after being convicted with 47 others for causing 'public disturbance' in an unfair and summary trial."

23: Pop superstar Michael Jackson will travel to Sudan to campaign for an end to child slavery in the country. He decided to make the trip after hearing of a visit by American civil rights campaigner Reverend Al Sharpton to the war-ravaged state. Children are often taken from their homes by soldiers, sold into slavery and forcibly converted to Islam as part of an ongoing civil war between Muslims in the north and Christians and traditionalists in the south.

24: Catholic bishops in the US have recommended that President George Bush name a special envoy for Sudan and that the US lead the way in seeking an end to the Sudanese civil war. Michael Perry, speaking for a National Conference of Catholic Bishops delegation that visited Sudan this month, said the US government should put pressure on oil companies also to ensure their activities in Sudan did not exacerbate the war between the Khartoum government and southern rebels.

24: Dr Mustafa Osman Ismail, Sudan’s external relations minister, has stressed that the government is endeavouring to adopt moderate foreign policies to confront the challenges and realise the hopes, wishes, aspirations and interests of Sudan. In a statement he gave before the National Assembly, he said the first challenge was the civil wars, disputes and conflicts raging in the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region, the Israeli-Arab conflict and the problems of armament.

24: Belarussian oil major Slavneft said it could start drilling operations in Sudan within the next six months as part of its push into the oil-rich African nation. A Slavneft official said the company had received the results of seismic exploration at Sudan's Block-9 and Block-11 and would examine them before making a decision.

24: The American Anti-Slavery Group-organised talks between John Garang's SPLA and Riek Machar's Sudan People's Democratic Front (SPDF) held in Nairobi, Kenya, have failed so far to reach a formula for a merger, or to resolve differences over the leadership of armed opposition in southern Sudan. The committee had been examining ways to unify military operations, the Sudanese newspaper 'Al-Ra'y al-Amm' said.

26: The American Anti-Slavery Group (AASG) has called upon Fidelity Investments of Boston to rid its mutual funds of Talisman Energy, the Canadian oil giant accused of contributing to genocide and the enslavement of Africans in Sudan. Charging that Talisman oil fields are being cleared by enslaving and murdering Africans,`` Charles Jacobs, AASG President, asked Fidelity CEO Edward Johnson III to ''act quickly.``

26:The US has suggested to the Sudanese government that the two countries cooperate on a peace plan for the south, possibly leading to a higher level of US. representation in Khartoum, US. Secretary of State Colin Powell said. The Khartoum government would have to stop the aerial bombardment of southern towns and villages and ease the restrictions on humanitarian relief to the south, he added.

27: The SPLA claims to have seized control of five areas in Southeastern Blue Nile Province after defeating government troops. But Khartoum refuted the claims saying that its troops had the upper hand in an offensive it launched on March 28.

28: The conference of the pro-government southern Sudanese factions ended with the unification of the factions under the general command of Maj-Gen Paulino Matib. The resolutions of the conference will be presented to the chairman of the Coordination Council for the Southern States [CCSS], Brig Gatluak Deng, who will in turn submit them to the president of the republic, Gen Omar al-Bashir.

28: A chartered plane carrying the Ugandan delegation, that returned home from Libya was delayed for two hours after Sudan reportedly refused to grant it clearance to over-fly their airspace. Sources said that the delegation which included Uganda’s vice president, Specioza Wandira Kazibwe was held at Tripoli International Airport for more than two hours while the Libyan authorities tried to obtain clearance from Sudan.

29: Secretary of State Colin Powell is fending off calls from lawmakers for a special envoy to Sudan, a nation stricken with slavery, war, famine and terrorism. Speaking before the House Appropriations Committee Powell said he is considering alternatives including the restoration of diplomatic ties with Khartoum.

30: The Sudanese minister of information Ghazi Salah Eddine has described the three American conditions to build better relations with Sudan as more positive than the tone of the former US administration. In a statement to the Sudanese daily al-Rai al-Am, the Sudanese minister said "we hope the US administration had realised that the Sudanese government proposed a comprehensive position to cease fire in Southern Sudan," noting that the rebellion movement laid obstructive conditions before ceasing fire.”

30: International donors had pledged less than one third of the emergency food needed for drought-stricken Sudan, the World Food Programme (WFP). WFP information officer Lindsey Davis told IRIN that governments and agencies had pledged only 55,000 mt of the 171,699 mt of food aid required to feed both northern and southern Sudan this year.

30: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed to a formula for Sudan to reschedule its debt repayments, the governor of the Central Bank of Sudan, Sabir al-Hasan, announced. AFP said it was the first time such an agreement had been made in 17 years.

30: The official Sudanese government spokesman, Information Minister Ghazi Salah al-Din al-Atabani, has expressed satisfaction at approach of the new US administration. He commended the "language" of the new US administration, regarding relations between the US and Sudan, and said it was more positive than that of the former administration, 'Al Ra'y al-Amm' newspaper reported.

30: A joint Ethiopian-Sudanese ministerial meeting held in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, will discuss the fate of the five hijackers of an Ethiopian aircraft, who had pleaded not to be extradited, a Sudanese official told IRIN. The two sides had agreed, "not to make an issue of the extradition of the hijackers", the source said.

2: AASG, in coordination with the Washington-based Free Sudan Movement (FSM), will protest Sudan's trade in black slaves at the Sudan Mission to the UN --655 3rd Avenue between 41st and 42nd Sts. On April 13 FSM leaders, former Congressman Rev. Walter Fauntroy and DC radio host, Joe Madison were arrested for chaining themselves to the gate of the Sudan Embassy in Washington, DC in a similar protest against black slavery.

3: Human rights activists and Sudanese expatriates descended on Talisman energy Inc.’s annual meeting to accuse the Canadian oil company of fueling Sudan’s civil war, but Talisman’s chief executive said the firm’s presence was only improving the situation. Outside the hotel where the meeting took place, about 200 demonstrators beat drums and chanted their opposition to Talisman’s involvement in a big south Sudan oil project they say is giving the Islamist government financial muscle to wage war against traditionalist and Christian people in the southern part of the country.

4: The fight for freedom in Sudan hit the streets of New York as a pair of radio hosts and two human-rights advocates were arrested protesting slavery in the African nation. Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, who hosts a WABC Radio morning show, led a quartet of protesters who blocked lunchtime pedestrian traffic outside the Sudan mission to the United Nations on Third Avenue near 42nd Street.

4: Sudanese government has rejected as “baseless” a report by an international relief agency warning about a looming famine among 40,000 people in southwestern Nuba Mountains. Mr. Abdel-Ati Abu-Kheir, deputy commissioner in Humanitarian Aid Commission, a government body in charge of relief in Sudan, said the Nuba Mountains areas were receiving regular food aid supplies.

6: Human rights groups involved in Sudan expressed shock that US has been voted off the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, while Sudan has been re-elected to the body despite blatant rights abuses, including slavery. They said the departure of the US would make condemnation of Khartoum's violations less likely, as the US had stood virtually alone in its firm stance on Sudan.

7: Canadian Foreign Minister John Manley has expressed concern at reports that Sudan's government could be using an airfield of the Canadian oil company Talisman Energy to launch offensive operations against rebels. Human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Christian Solidarity International, have reported bombing raids by the Sudanese military on civilians by helicopter gunships operating from the oil consortium's airstrips.

9: A 26-year-old Danish co-pilot was killed when his plane was shot over southern Sudan. Mr. Ole-Friis Eriksen, a co-pilot of an aircraft chartered by International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), died from what his pilot described as severe head injuries from a loud explosion in their aircraft that was on its way to Khartoum from the northwestern Kenya town of Lokichoggio. The light aircraft, on a routine flight to Sudan, belonged to Danish Aviation Assistance Company of Denmark.

9: Nigeria has sent an envoy to Sudan to pursue a new peace initiative a week after its President Olusegun Obasanjo met Sudanese rebel and opposition leaders, Sudanese media reported. Nigeria hopes its initiative will bring Sudan’s 18-year-old civil war to an end, Obasanjo’s special envoy Ibrahim Babangida was quoted on Sudanese news agency, SUNA, as saying.

10: Freedom House Chairman and former US ambassador to the UN, Bill Richardson, has indicated his willingness to discuss the recent ouster of the US from the UN Commission on Human Rights. The vote saw the election of Sudan among other countries, which Washington has been accusing of human rights abuses. Freedom House, an organisation accredited at the UN, is currently under attack by Cuba and Sudan who are seeking to strip it of its UN status

11: Oil production in Sudan is exceeding expectations as output in Africa's largest country reaches 220,000 barrels a day despite civil war and US sanctions, a senior official said. Energy and Mining Minister Awad Ahmed Al-Jaz Minister said a consortium of Canadian, Chinese, Malaysian and Sudanese companies has had 100 percent success with the wells in its concession, the first to come on line.

11: Sudan’s Islamist government has accused rebels of killing a Red Cross pilot on an aid mission in the south, the independent al-Ayam daily reported. The Danish pilot was killed when his plane came under fire over southern Sudan.

11: In a significant move, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has indicated that it will investigate all foreign firms listed in the country’s capital markets so as to determine whether these companies have disclosed everything about the foreign operations. More so, the move seeks to expose and deal with those companies that have contravened US rules on sanctions.

11: Sudan and Uganda have agreed to ease the tension that has characterised relations between the two countries for the last 15 years. The two countries have also agreed to implement an agreement they signed in Nairobi in December 1999.

14: The presidents of Egypt and Sudan have agreed in talks in Cairo to reactivate diplomatic ties between the two countries that have been dormant since the mid 1990s when they fell out together. President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and his Sudanese counterpart, Bashir indicated that they will revive a joint cooperation commission and all suspended bilateral agreements.

14: The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) began the process of repatriating Eritrean refugees living in camps in Kassala and Al-Qadarif [Gedaref] states in eastern Sudan. A first convoy carrying 932 refugees left Lafa refugee camp in Kassala, the agency told IRIN. The majority of Eritreans living in Sudan have been there since well before May 1993, when Eritrea declared independence after a long liberation struggle with Ethiopia, but tens of thousands more crossed into the country in May and June last year when war between the two countries caused tens of thousands of Eritreans to leave their homes.

15: United States Agency for International Development (USAID) recently donated about US$259, 740 for the newly-refurbished Rumbek Secondary School in southern Sudan. The money was channeled through the Catholic Relief services.

Scio-043-a

June 15, 2001

1. Chronology (2001 )

May 16: Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin has said Ethiopia is determined to strengthen its relations with Sudan. Seyoum made the remarks during a meeting with the visiting Speaker of Sudanese Parliament, Ahmed Ibrahim El-Tahir.

17: Ten Sudanese students have obtained scholarships to continue higher studies in the field of petroleum at the Malaysian Petronas Technological University, Sudan News agency reported. The Malaysian National Oil Company (PETRONAS) presented the scholarships in Khartoum. The Managing Director of PETRONAS in Sudan, Azhar Nural-Din, explained that the scholarships were aimed at bolstering bilateral relations and mutual understanding.

18: The SPLA said they had overrun two government garrisons in Bahr el Ghazal province. The group said that its forces had overrun Alok and Kubri Kuom in northern Bahr el Ghazal.

18: Shell oil company has promised that its aviation fuel will not be used in military aircraft launching bombing raids in southern Sudan. The company’s chairman, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart who also said that Shell’s 60 retail outlets in Sudan did not refuel military jets, made the commitment. He however admitted it was possible some supplies were being diverted.

20: The European Union has approved a grant of US$15 million to assist Sudan overcome the effects of an acute food and water shortage. Out of the grant, US$13 million will be used to provide food while US$2 million would be spent on water projects in drought-affected regions.

21: China's Harbin Power Station Engineering Ltd has signed a US$140 million power plant construction contract with the Sudan State Power Company. The project is expected to take 32 months to complete and will require a 100 km transmission line and a new transformer station.

22: Sudan has obtained a loan of US$10 million from the OPEC Development Fund to rehabilitate infrastructures of the Gezira Irrigation Scheme in central Sudan, said the Minister of Finance, Abdulraheem Hamdi. Early this year, OPEC loaned Khartoum another US$22 million to finance the rehabilitation of the same project.

22: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that it was resuming flights in Sudan, two weeks after the fatal shooting of one of its co-pilots. “The decision to resume flights was made on the basis of information indicating that the dramatic incident was the result of a fatal combination of circumstances and not a deliberate attack targeting the Red Cross,” read a statement for the ICRC.

22: UNICEF has reported that the Government of Sudan aircraft dropped two bombs on the town of Akuem in Bahr el Ghazal. The bombs landed in the vicinity of the non-OLS NGO compound.

22: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has lifted a ban on livestock imports from Sudan. According to Mohammed Salih Jabalabi, Under-Secretary of Animal Resources, the UAE had decided to lift the ban after a report by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) showed that Sudan was free from Rift Valley fever and other livestock diseases. Livestock and beef imports from Sudan and other East African countries were instituted in September last year after the outbreak in Saudi Arabia and Yemen of Rift Valley fever that killed scores of people.

23: A Sudanese court has turned down a prosecution request to extend the detention of jailed opposition leader Hassan Turabi, and set a trial date for May 27. Judge Mutasim Tajulsir Mohammed of Khartoum North Court said he was not convinced by prosecution’s arguments that it needed more time to interrogate Turabi, who has been in detention since February 21 on charges of a conspiracy to overthrow President Omar el-Bashir.

23: The Carter Centre and its partners have begun to blanket Sudan with nine million pipe filters to cut the risk of contracting Guinea Worm disease. Addressing an international news conference in Nairobi, Health and Development International Executive Director, Dr Anders Sein, said Sudan is the final great challenge to the eradication of the disease.

23: Sudanese Foreign Minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail delivered a “special message to President Daniel arap Moi of Kenya from his Sudanese counterpart, President Omar el Bashir. The message reiterated that President Bashir would attend an IGAD summit that Moi has offered to organise in a bid to end the war.

23: Canada has expressed its "concern over the tragic situation in Sudan" and called for a stepping up of the peace process. In a statement issued by the Foreign Minister, John Manley, and Secretary of State for Latin America and Africa, David Kilgour, the ministers "expressed concern over the tragic situation in Sudan and restated the urgent need to re-energise the peace process under the auspices of the Igad"

24: A Japanese oil firm, Mitsui Company, is the latest entrant in Sudan’s volatile oil industry. The company expressed desire to invest in oil and gas exploration in the country when its officials visited Sudan’s Energy and Mining Minister Dr Awad Ahmad al-Jaz.

24: Lawyers defending Turabi have condemned the rejection by the prosecution of a request for visiting him and three of his colleagues in jail. In a statement faxed to AFP, the lawyers claimed that the prosecution had denied 10 of their colleagues from visiting the defendants in Kober Prison on grounds that the investigations in the case were still incomplete.

24: Government troops pelted Tonj in Bahr el Ghazal region with 14 bombs, as Khartoum announced a cessation of air raids on rebel positions in south Sudan and the Nuba Mountains. A Catholic priest at Tonj, Fr James Pulickal, said the bomber aircraft struck in the morning and in the afternoon.

24: Sudanese Minister for Information Ghazi Salah Eddin Atabani was quoted by the country’s state news agency, SUNA, as promising that the government had decided to ‘cease’ air raids effective May 25. This, he said, was “in pursuance of the state’s set policy for achieving peace and stability, bolstering the reconciliation process and continued call by the state for a comprehensive ceasefire.”

24: The External Relations Committee at the Sudanese National Assembly has condemned Israel for carrying out aggressive activities against Palestinians. In a statement, the Committee called for international protection of the Palestinian people and on the Arab and Islamic governments to adopt a stance toward these aggressions.

25: Unexpected and ferocious assaults by Sudanese government forces swept through the Nuba Mountains on May 24 and 25 sending church people working in the El Obeid Diocese fleeing to the bush. The operation seemed determined to cut off all exists from the areas around Kauda and Gidel. Bishop Macram Gassis of the Diocese who at the time of the attack was in Canada appealed for “all people of good will, whatever their religion, to pray for the people and my personnel in the Nuba Mountains.”

25: The SPLA has claimed that it forces killed more than 300 government soldiers in fighting in Blue Nile province. “SPLA forces have repulsed attacks by government forces in the Chali region, downing helicopters, and scattering the government troops after killing more than 300 soldiers,” SPLA spokesman Yasser Erman said

25: The US State Department has reached an agreement to supply US$3 million in logistical support to a Sudanese opposition alliance that includes the SPLA. Under a contract with DynCorp, a Reston government and defence contractor, the Bush administration will provide funding for office space, equipment, radios, vehicles, staff and training in an effort to enhance the political effectiveness of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

25: Riot police used teargas to disperse thousands of demonstrators in Khartoum protesting against the killing of an opposition activist. An official of the Popular National Congress (PNC) told AFP that the killing of Ali Ahmed al-Bashir was not an accident but was "an act of liquidation".

25: The Algerian ambassador in Khartoum, Ahmad Bin Flese, has expressed the wish of his country to invest in the Sudan in the domains of oil and gas exploration. This was after he met the Minister of Energy and Mining Dr Awad Ahmad Al-Jaz in a meeting held to discuss the bilateral relations between the two countries.

25: A delegation from the British Broadcasting Corporation is set to arrive on May 26 to launch transmission of an FM frequency in Khartoum and Wad Madani in Al-Jazirah State. The transmission will be a joint transmission between the BBC Arabic service and Sudanese Radio.

25: The Sudanese Communist Party has accused the SPLA of secessionism. A statement by the party’s Central Committee, said the SPLA had violated its commitment to the unity of Sudan as provided for in resolutions of the NDA to which both the Communist Party and SPLA are members.

25: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed the announcement by Khartoum to halt aerial attacks in southern Sudan and Nuba Mountains, saying he hopes that the positive move will be conducive to peace in the African country. In a statement, issued through a spokesman, Annan, said he hoped that “ this positive step will help reduce the sufferings of the people in these areas and will also enhance the prospects for peace."

26: US Secretary of State Colin Powell has called for reconciliation between Sudan's warring parties, and indicated the US may take a more even-handed approach to the conflict than did the previous administration.

26: The Sudanese army claims to have retaken nine localities from the SPLA in the Nuba Mountains, said state Omdurman Radio. The radio quoted the Armed Forces General Command as saying its troops had managed to "liberate" nine localities in the Nuba Mountains after inflicting heavy casualties on the rebels. The recaptured localities named by the statement included Tangaru, Kamu, Um Dartu and Kajama. However, no details were given on the dates of the operations.

26: Sudan slammed the decision by the US to give US$3 million in aid to the NDA warning that the move will lead to further bloodshed. “It violates all efforts under way to achieve a just and peaceful solution to the problem of southern Sudan,'' said a statement issued by the Sudanese embassy in Qatar.

26: The Sudanese civil war was said to be one of the main topics that Powell hoped to discuss with Kenya’s President Daniel arap Moi, Nairobi’s Daily Nation reported.President Moi is the current chair of the regional IGAD, which is trying to end the 18-year-old conflict.

27: The US has agreed to send emergency food aid to Sudan to help both the government-controlled north as well as rebel held south. This is despite Washington's tense relations with Khartoum. Andrew Niatsos, US humanitarian coordinator for Sudan said the 40,000 tonnes of food for Sudan is aimed at meeting emergency needs.

28: President Bashir and SPLA leader, John Garang have promised to attend the regional peace summit aimed at ending the country's 18 -year-old planned for Nairobi on June 2. This is according to Justin Arop, a senior official of the SPLA. El-Bashir and Garang have never held direct talks.

28: The SPLA and the Sudan People's Defence Forces (SPDF) have agreed to unite in their fight against the Khartoum government. The new union between the two largest rebel groups in Sudan comes a few days before the rebels are due to hold peace talks with the government in Nairobi under the auspices of IGAD. The new joint group will operate under the banner of the SPLA. Dr. Justin Yaac Arop and Prof. George Bureng Nyombe signed on behalf of the SPLA while their counterparts from the SPDF were Commanders Taban Deng Gai and James Kok.

28:A Khartoum based Islamist opposition group has accused the government of beating and shooting dead one of its members in front of his family. The Popular National Congress (PNC) and the Cairo-based Sudan Human Rights Organisation (SHRO) said security forces had deliberately killed 34-year old Ali al-Bashir on May 24.

28: Sudan's Foreign Minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail has welcomed America’s greater involvement in ending the civil war, but as long as Washington adopted a neutral stand in the conflict. Ismail said this during a two-day visit in Norway to meet top leaders, ahead of a June 2 peace summit in Nairobi.

29:Sudan Government troops burnt down 14 villages in the Nuba Mountains destroying about 5,000 homes, reported the AFP from Cairo. According to a statement to the news agency by the SPLA, Khartoum had employed a “scorched earth policy” after failing to rout rebels from fortified positions in the mountainous region in Central Sudan during the weeklong operations.

29: More than 400 government soldiers were killed on May 29 in three battles with SPLA troops, the rebel group claimed. According to SPLA spokesman, Yasser Ermane, who is based in Eritrea, the group killed the soldiers in the battle over Deim Zubeir in western Wau. He said that five vehicles transporting government troops sent as reinforcements to the Wau region were destroyed in an ambush laid by the SPLA.

29: A senior official of the SPDF has denied claims of a merger between the SPDF and the SPLA. He was reacting to an announcement made a few days earlier in Nairobi that the two rebel groups had agreed to merge and operate under the banner of the SPLA. Simon Kun Puk said that the declaration of unity was "premature", adding that the member who signed on its behalf "was not authorised by the leadership".

29: Fifty humanitarian organisations and emergency relief groups have launched a campaign to freeze the activities of oil companies in the Sudan. Among the European oil firms in Sudan are Austria's OMV, Britain's BP and Sweden's Lundin. France's TotalFinaElf also possesses a block for exploration, but it remains in development limbo due to the war.

29: The Sudanese government said its troops had successfully driven back a rebel offensive on the southern front line according to Al Tayeb Mustafa, a government spokesman. He said that the SPLA attacked government troops in Bahr al-Ghazal province but had been repulsed.

29: The Sudanese government has dismissed the recent merger of the SPDF and SPLA claiming that the two groups had long been coordinating operations. "There is nothing new about the agreement ...it was only a declaration of an existing situation," said an army spokesman, Mohamed Beshir Suleiman.

29: The World Food Programme (WFP) has welcomed the US donation of food aid worth more than US $60 million to help Sudan. The group said that the donation would be used to relieve the suffering of nearly three million drought- and war-affected communities throughout the country. The 40, 000 metric tonnes donation will be distributed in the hardest regions of Darfur and Kordofan.

29: Syrian Prime Minister Mohamed Mustafa Miro arrived in Sudan for a three-day visit for talks on bilateral cooperation in politics, economy and culture. Miro said that several agreements would be concluded during his tour.

30: DetainedTurabi has been moved from jail to precautionary arrest in a government house in a Khartoum suburb, his wife told AFP. Wisal al-Mahdi said that her husband was brought from Khartoum's Kober Prison to the house in Khartoum North's Kafouri estate.

30: Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni will meet his Sudanese counterpart Bashir in Nairobi during the IGAD peace talks on Sudan in a bid to improve relations between the two countries. According to Museveni's press secretary, Hope Kivengere, the two leaders will meet and discuss relations between Uganda and Sudan in the light of the recent moves to get closer diplomatically.

30: Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail arrived in the French capital, Paris for a one-day visit as part of his European tour.The minister is expected to meet with the French minister of cooperation and Francophone and also hold a press conference to review the political developments in Sudan.

30: The SPLA has claimed that its forces have captured the garrison town of Sopo, where remnants of a government forces had fled after losing the battle for Deim Zubeir, another key town in the Bahr el-Ghazal province. During fighting for Sopo, says the SPLA, its forces had destroyed a full battalion with a few survivors fleeing towards, Raga, 40 kilometres away.

30: European oil companies operating in Sudan could face tough questions on their investments there, after the European Union selected a fact-finding mission to investigate alleged human rights abuses in that country. The move came after human rights groups called on the EU to impose a temporary ban on investments by European companies in the Sudanese oil sector and to close its borders to Nile Blend crude until peace is restored in the country. The ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly will fly to Sudan on June 26 and June 27.

30: The World Bank and other donors are to finance new development projects in countries that share the River Nile. According to Senior Water Resources advisor for the Africa region, David Grey the Bank had established a trust fund and invited donors to fund whatever projects are agreed on.

30: Japan signed off US$2.2 for a UNICEF campaign to eradicate polio in Sudan. According to the Japanese Ambassador to Sudan, Akira Hoshi, the aid was in response to an appeal by the UN agency. Thomas Ekvall, the UNICEF representative in Sudan, said the vaccination campaign was difficult because of the size of the country and the war.

June

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: Talisman Energy Inc. has said it won't be affected by proposed new US legislation against companies operating in Sudan, and is adamant that its presence encourages improved human rights in the country. The company said this after American legislators approved a bill, the Sudan Peace Act, which would prevent foreign companies from being listed on US stock exchanges if they're involved in Sudan like Talisman.

15: There is extensive use of child soldiers by both government and opposition armed forces in the Sudanese civil war, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers has reported. Pro-government paramilitaries have a long history of forced recruitment of children while armed opposition groups, including the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA) are also known to have children in their ranks.

15: A ship carrying 17,400 tonnes of wheat donated by the US for victims of drought and war has arrived in Sudan, the World Food Programme (WFP) said. The food was diverted to Sudan from its original destination of Mozambique, and is part of a US$61.7million donation to WFP by the US.

15: Sudan’sPresident Omar el-Bashir has named a new peace adviser and minister of information and communications, state television reported. Mahdi Ibrahim is the new Minister of Information and Communication, replacing Ghazi Salah al-Din, who becomes the Presidential Adviser on Peace Affairs, which is a ministerial position.

15: A senior Sudanese government relief official has said there was a growing rate of diarrhoea among the people who arrived in the Timsah area in Southern Darfur, fleeing from Raga and Deim Zubeir in the Bahr el-Ghazal province. Humanitarian Aid Commissioner (HAC) Sulaf Eddin Salih has warned of an epidemic of the disease in the region.

15: The Sudanese government has slammed the Sudan Peace Act as a "negative" legislation as it does not help the peaceful efforts pursued by the Sudanese government for reaching a negotiated peaceful settlement" to the Sudanese problem. The official agency SUNA quoted a foreign ministry spokesman as saying.

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.

15: The visiting Deputy Director of the News Agency of the United Arab Emirates (WAM), Ali Amir Al-Mishgari, held talks with the Acting General Manager of SUNA, Bakri Mulah, at the Khartoum headquarters of SUNA. The talks focused on the exchange of news, information and experiences between the two news agencies.

15: Sudan has called on all the Somali parties to adhere to the method of dialogue and keep away from fighting, reported SUNA. A statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the situation in Somalia said that Sudan was concerned about the deteriorating security situation especially in central and southern parts of Somalia.

15: Sudan’s Minister of National Defence Maj. Gen. Bakri Hassan Salih has expressed the determination of the country’s armed forces to persevere the challenges facing them during the country’s civil war. He said this in an address at celebrations held in Khartoum on the occasion of the 47th anniversary of the Armed Forces' Day.

15: Sudan’s Foreign Minister, Mustafa Ismail, has sent a congratulatory cable to James Wmabogu on his appointment as Uganda’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, reported SUNA. Ismail expressed his desire to work together with Wmabogu to boost and normalise relations between the two countries.

15: The leader of the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has reiterated support for the Egyptian-Libyan peace initiative. During a meeting with Secretary General of the ruling NC party Ibrahim Ahmad Omar, Osman Mirghani said that the conditions set by the SPLA, on taking part in dialogue with the government are not binding to his United Democratic Party (UDP).

16: Three people were reported to have died in Nile floods near Khartoum as heavy rains left large parts of the country under water and the Nile continued to rise to dangerous levels. The three downed in Omdurman. Three people died when the heavy rains first hit Khartoum in early August.

16: President Bashir has urged Sudanese men to take more than one wife in order to double the country’s population of 30 million. The Sudanese should ignore international family planning policies, Bashir said in a speech to the ruling NC party. He said Sudan needed more people for development, since it is Africa’s biggest country and rich in resources.

16: Kenyan importers of the controversial 2,000 tonnes of Sudanese diesel want a refund of US$76,923 duty paid to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). Bahriya Petroleum Ltd is further demanding to be paid US$115,385 as demurrage, special and punitive damages. The firm has warned that if the money is not refunded within 30 days, KRA could face legal action.

16: President Bashir was to leave Khartoum for the Ugandan capital of Kampala to attend an economic summit, scheduled to begin on August 18, reported SUNA. He was to be accompanied by Presidential Advisor Badr-Eddin Suleiman, Finance and National Economy Minister Abdel-Rahim Hamdi and State Minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Chol Deng.

16: The Undersecretary of the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Awdal-Karim Fadlallah, received at his office the Turkish Ambassador to Sudan, reported SUNA. The meeting discussed means of boosting the bilateral relations between the two countries. They also discussed an expected visit by 170 Turkish businessmen to Sudan at the end of August and preparations of a Turkish exhibition in Khartoum in October.

16: Sudan’s Information and Communications Minister, Mahdi Ibrahim attended an extraordinary meeting of the Council of the Arab information ministers held at the premises of General Secretariat of the Arab League in Cairo. The Council approved an executive plan on providing political and media support to the Palestinians.

16: The Chairman of the Political Sector at the ruling NC party, Ghazi Salah-Eddin, said that the party is planning to effect an integrated political and social movement, reported SUNA. Ghazi said that the movement would seek to deal with the requirements of realising peace in the country.

16: Sudan’s State Minister for Finance and National Economy, Hassan Ahmed Taha attended a meeting of the General Assembly of the Bank of the Community of Sahel and Sahara States. The meeting was also attended by his counterparts from Mali, Chad, Libya and Burkina Faso, besides representatives and observers of other member states of the community. The meeting discussed a draft document on foundation of the community's Bank.

16: Egypt’s Foreign Minister Ahmad Mahir met with visiting Sudanese Minister of Information Mahdi Ibrahim and discussed the Egyptian-Libyan peace initiative on reconciliation in Sudan, reported the Middle East News Agency (MENA). Mahir dismissed allegations that the SPLA had rejected the initiative.

17: Floodwaters of the Nile continued to rise steadily in Sudan and Khartoum residents were preparing for the swollen river to burst its banks within days, reported Reuters. The river has already reached its highest level in more than 20 years, prompting tens of thousands of people to flee their homes in other parts of Sudan.

17: A Sudanese student was killed and 16 injured in clashes between students of rival political parties at Gezira University, 185 kilometres south of Khartoum. During the incidence two university offices were set ablaze so were two vehicles before police intervened. The incident was sparked when non-Gezira students, allied to the ruling party, interrupted a political debate organised by local students loyal to the opposition DUP.

17: The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has suggested that Egypt, Equatorial Guinea and Sudan would join the international oil cartel as observers, said Venezuela's Energy and Mining Minister Alvaro Silva. Venezuela has proposed that the group of observers should participate not only in ordinary meetings but in extraordinary meetings as well.

17: South Sudanese politicians affiliated with the ruling party have called on the government to honour commitments to the south, including a referendum on self-determination. The officials, who included ministers and provincial governors, called for respect for the principles of self-determination and sharing of national wealth as set out in an agreement signed in 1997 with Khartoum.

17: Unusually heavy rains in Ethiopia will continue to swell the Blue Nile and prolong flooding of the river on its course through neighbouring Sudan well into September, meteorologists said. Rains in Ethiopia, where the Blue Nile rises, have been 25 percent heavier than normal this year, causing the river and its tributaries to swell to abnormal levels as it flows into Sudan.

17: Sudanese Catholic and Episcopal Bishops have appealed to the warring parties to immediately cease hostilities and establish a just and durable peace in the country. In the appeal issued at the end of a weeklong meeting in Nairobi the clerics pointed that the war had left more than 96 percent of the country’s 30 million people living below the poverty line.

18: A Sudanese court has sentenced two bandits to death for murdering a man during an armed robbery on a remote road in western Sudan. Adam Eisa Ali and Dhahiyah Suleiman Musbil were found guilty of premeditated murder, wounding two other men and looting US$140 in an attack on the road from Nyala to Kas last year, the independent Al-Ayam daily newspaper said.

18: Presidential Adviser on Peace Affairs Ghazi Salah Eddin has reiterated that the Sudanese government has unconditionally accepted the Egyptian-Libyan peace initiative. According to a press release issued by the Sudanese Embassy in Nigeria, Ghazi was quoted as saying that the government is ready to embrace dialogue in order to end the war.

18: Ninety-nine inhabited islands on the River Nile in northern Sudan have been evacuated under threat of rising waters, leaving about 1,000 families without shelter, a newspaper reported. Those evacuated were living in the open as the overflowing waters continued to encircle Abu Hamad town in Northern State, the daily Al-Ayam reported.

18: Sudan warned of an imminent explosion in the Middle East due to Israeli practices against the Palestinians and the world's failure to stop them. “The current conflict threatens the region with a new explosion due to the grave Israeli excesses and the world's silence in addition to the full US alignment with Israel,” said Information Minister, Mahdi Ibrahim.

18: Presidential Adviser, Ghazi Salah Eddin has denied allegations of a controversy between the Sudan and Nigeria towards convening the Afro-Arab summit for peace in the Sudan, saying that consultations are underway to determine the issues to be discussed.

19: The SPLA claimed that its forces had captured a government riverboat and four smaller vessels in an ambush on a tributary of the Nile. A spokesman for the group, Yasser Arman, said the forces attacked the convoy on the Bahr el-Jabal river near Wang Kai, which lies 40 km upstream from Bentiu, the capital of the oil-rich Unity State.

19: President Bashir has told African leaders that the continent has to have political stability if it is to attract foreign investment. He was speaking to six African presidents and three prime ministers who had gathered in Kampala to brainstorm with the help of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed on how to attract vital foreign investment to the continent.

19: Sudan's armed forces claimed to have killed 15 rebels in the Nuba Mountains, forcing the rest of the attackers to flee, SUNA reported. Armed forces spokesman General Mohammed Bashir Suleiman claimed that the army had inflicted “heavy losses” on the rebels, capturing a large amount of weapons and ammunition after the rebels attacked the Dara locality.

20: Former Sudanese Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi has urged the Egyptian and Libyan co-sponsors of a peace initiative for Sudan to support self-determination for the country's southerners. Mahdi, leader of the opposition UMMA party said refusing to allow south Sudan to decide its future would only harden opposition to unity with the north.

20: President Bashir met with his Ugandan counterpart, Yoweri Museveni for talks on further improving their relations, an official statement said. The statement gave few details about the meeting held in Kampala, but quoted Bashir as “looking forward to receiving Uganda's charge d'affaires to Sudan.”

20: Nairobi’s Catholic Archbishop Ndingi Mwana a’Nzeki has urged African governments to help Sudan exploit its massive resources for the promotion of peace and development instead of war. The Primate, who was conducting a special service for Sudanese refugees in Nairobi, asked the Sudanese to remain steadfast in their quest for peace and justice.

20: President Bashir has said that Sudan stopped giving ammunition and logistical support to Ugandan rebels following the 1999 signing of a pact to normalise relations. Speaking during a visit in Uganda, Bashir urged Kampala to also cut links with the SPLA.

21: The SPLA reported that its forces in Panaru, Western Upper Nile attacked and destroyed a huge convoy at the oil concession area. The attack is reported to have occurred on August 9 and left 42 government soldiers dead.

21: The SPLA has released details of the August 5 attack on the headquarters of the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC), the consortium coordinating oil exploration in Western Upper Nile. The group said that during the attack its forces destroyed a helicopter, five fuel reservoirs and the main electric power station plunging Bentiu Town into darkness.

21: The River Nile's annual flooding, which has left thousands of Sudanese people homeless will not seriously affect Egypt, the country’s Water Resources Minister Mahmoud Abu-Zeid said. "We reassure everybody that floods no longer represent any danger to Egypt ever since the building of the High Dam," said Abu-Zeid.

21: US counter-terrorism analysts have concluded the terrorists involved in a 1995 assassination plot against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak no longer enjoy the protection of Sudan, a Bush administration official has said. However, the U.S. experts are still trying to determine if Sudan has ended its support for terrorism generally.

21: US Secretary of State Colin Powell is pondering a decision whether or not to support an Egyptian move in the United Nations to lift restrictions on foreign travel by Sudanese officials, said a US official. The UN sanctions were imposed in 1996 to force Sudan to hand over the gunmen who tried to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak while he was visiting Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in June 1995.

21: A joint team of experts from the Sudanese government, UN relief agencies and NGOs left Khartoum for the central Sudan Sennar State, to assess the situation after days of heavy rains and storms, SUNA reported. Another team is expected to leave by helicopter to the northern flood-hit River Nile State, to assess the needed relief prior to an appeal for assistance, the agency quoted the government Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) as saying.

21: SUNA reported that Khartoum has offered the state 5,000 bags of 100 kilogrammes each of wheat to people displaced by the flooded River Nile. The agency also quoted the Kuwaiti charge d'affaires in Khartoum, Fahd Ahmed al-Awadhi, as saying Kuwait will fly a humanitarian air bridge for the relief of the people affected by the floods. He said a first plane would arrive in Khartoum on August 21 and a second on August 25, carrying drugs, medical aid, insecticides and tents.

22: Kuwait flew a cargo plane loaded with humanitarian aid to Sudan to help victims of the extensive flooding in the northern part of the country, reported the official Kuwait News Agency (KUNA). The aid, which was dispatched by Hercules C-130 transporter on the orders of Emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah, included tents, drugs, first aid kits and food supplies.

22: The White House has not decided whether to lift a ban on travel imposed on Sudan by the UN in 1996, reported the Washington Post. This is a month before the matter comes up for renewal in the 15-member UN Security Council, where the US has a veto. It has been reported that some US State Department and counter-terrorism officials favour rewarding Sudan for its co-operation. The sanctions were imposed in 1996 after Sudan refused to extradite three Egyptians accused of participating in the attempt to kill Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on June 26, 1995 in Ethiopia.

22: US officials have emphasised that Washington has no intention of lifting economic sanctions imposed on Sudan, because of the country’s poor human rights record and possible continuing links to some terrorist groups, reported the Washington Post. The paper said that lifting the sanctions run foul of an American coalition of evangelical Christians, conservative lawmakers and anti-slavery activists who want to punish Khartoum waging war against the south.

22: Sudan's ambassador to the UN, Elfatih Erwa has said that he believed his government had succeeded in satisfying America’s concerns that it was no longer supporting terrorists, reported the Washington Post. He was speaking in relation to the issue of sanctions imposed by the UN on Sudan in relation to the botched up bid to assassinate Egypt’s President Mubarak.

22: Four Greek men accused of murdering a Greek Orthodox bishop in Sudan have been acquitted on a lack of evidence, a newspaper reported. Judge Zuhair Abdel Aal said in his verdict that the prosecutor had not been able to present sufficient evidence against the accused, the independent Al-Rai Al-Am newspaper said. Sudan's Greek Orthodox bishop, Titos Karatzalis, 69, was murdered last year in July at his residence in Khartoum.

22: The SPLA has claimed that their forces had captured two major government garrisons and killed more than 20 soldiers in the Nuba Mountains during the past two weeks. The group said that its 27th Brigade forces captured the Barkandi garrison in Dalany County on August 8 and killed nine government soldiers. In another "brief and decisive battle" on August 16, SPLA forces of the 26th Brigade captured the government garrison of Dari, killing 13 government soldiers.

22: Lawyers for a Tunisian accused of running an anti-Sudanese espionage network and his six alleged Sudanese accomplices have demanded the charges against them be dropped. The defence lawyer for Tunisian Ali bin Mustafa bin Hamed said in court that his client was pressured by Tunisia's embassy to provide information about Sudan's army, as well as Arab fundamentalists in the country, while lawyers for Hamed's six alleged accomplices are arguing their clients were unaware of the nature of their actions.

22: Saudi Arabia is considering the possibility of lifting ban on imports of livestock products from Sudan. Kamal Taha, a diplomat in the Sudanese embassy in Riyadh said that Saudi delegation, including experts and officials from trade and agriculture ministries will head to Sudan at the end of August and assess the situation. The ban was imposed in February over fears of contamination of livestock products by the mad cow disease, foot and mouth disease and the Rift Valley Fever.

22: Floods in northern Sudan have displaced tens of thousands of people, destroyed crops and aggravated already precarious food supply, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has said. "The humanitarian situation in the affected areas is reported to be critical and there is an urgent need for international assistance to rescue stranded people and provide them with food, drinking water, medicines and other assistance," said the agency.

22: The SPLA claimed that three people taken captive in a Nile riverboat ambush admitted to being Sudanese intelligence agents on a reconnaissance mission. "The whole group was used by the government army for reconnaissance purposes along the river road that connects the town of Malakal with the oil producing regions," said SPLA spokesman Yasser Arman. Malakal is 240 kilometers northeast of Wang Kai where the ambush took place.

23: A Scotland based engineering company, Weir Group hit out at criticism from human rights groups of its business in Sudan and said it would consider further projects there. The Glasgow-based maker of pumps sold its oil pumps to Sudan’s emerging oil industry in 1998. Weir, which has also brought in Sudanese engineers for training has secured a second Sudanese contract to supply the pumps.

23: Presidential Adviser Ghazi Salah-Eddin was to leave for Addis Ababa carrying a special message from President Bashir, to the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, SUNA reported. Sudan ambassador to Ethiopia, Osman Al-Sayed, said that the message deals with progress of bilateral relations between the two countries.

23: President Bashir will inaugurate on August 24 the third phase of the Western Nile Road at Um-Kati as well as an electricity power project for seven rural villages in the northern part of Karari Province, SUNA reported. He will also address a rally at the area of Al-Kodab and attend a mass marriage in the same area.

23: President Bashir received a cable of thanks from the Moroccan Monarch, King Mohammed VI, in response to a cable he earlier sent to him on the occasion of the anniversary of his coronation, SUNA reported. Meanwhile, Bashir has issued a Republican Decree, appointing Amin Hassan Omer as General Director of the Sudanese Radio and Television Corporation, SUNA reported.

23: Presidential adviser, Ghazi Salah-Eddin will hold talks with Ethiopian Foreign Minister Ato Seyom Mussfin, and meet leaders of the ruling party in Ethiopia, Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front, SUNA reported. He will also make contacts with the Secretary General of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the agency added.

23: A Political Committee emanating from the joint Sudanese-Ethiopian ministerial committee is to hold a meeting in Addis Ababa early September, Sudan’s ambassador to Ethiopia, Osman Al-Sayed said. He added that the committee would discuss implementation of agreements signed by the two countries during the 5th session of the ministerial committee in Addis Ababa held last April.

23: Sudan’s ambassador to Ethiopia, Osman Al-Sayed indicated that preparations are being made for opening two Sudanese consulates in Gundar and Gumbaila in Ethiopia and two Ethiopian consulates in Gadarif and Damazin in Sudan within the context of the efforts to facilitate the movement of citizens across the border and to boost the border trade. The ambassador said that preparations are also underway to hold the third session of the joint border development committee in the Sudanese town of Damazin.

23: An Ethiopian delegation, headed by the Ethiopian Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications, is due to visit Sudan to review with the officials at the Ministry of Transport aspects of bilateral cooperation, reported SUNA. The agency added that the delegation would inspect the progress of work at Gadarif - Doka - Galabat - Almatama road that links the two countries. The delegation will also discuss means of linking the two countries with a railway line.

23: Sudan’s State Minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Al-Tighani Salih Fedail, received at his office visiting General Director of the Arab League Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ALESCO), Dr. Al-Munji Bosneina. The meeting discussed cooperation between the Sudan and ALESCO.

23: Sudan’s Second Vice – President, Prof. Moses Machar, has affirmed the government’s keenness to realise stability and development in the south and to make a success the agricultural season there, SUNA reported. He made the affirmation when he received in his office a delegation of the farmers of Western Barh el-Ghazal State.

23: The US Securities and Exchange Commission is not backing down from a new demand that foreign companies wanting to raise capital in the US must declare whether they are earning profits from "rogue" states, reported a Canadian paper, the Financial Post. In what has become an intense political battle, Congress is trying to force Harvey Pitt, the new SEC chairman, to honour a May 8 pledge made by Laura Unger, the former acting SEC chairman, to demand more disclosure from non-US companies about foreign operations, especially in Sudan.

23: General Director of the Arab League Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ALESCO), Dr. Al-Munji Bosneina, met with the Arab ambassadors accredited to the Sudan and acquainted them with the objectives of his visit, reported SUNA. Bosneina said that he had come to affirm the effective role of the Sudan as the gate to Africa and to boost the joint Arab works in the domains of culture and science. While calling for dialogue between civilizations, Bosneina asked for the maintaining of Arab heritage and expanding the Arabic language and the Islamic culture.

23: Government of Sudan forces defused explosives laid down by a rebel group to blow up a major oil pipeline, the Interior Minister said in a statement. Abdel-Rahim Hussein said six land mines and a detonator were discovered 40 kilometers south of the city of Sinkat, some 1,000 kilometers east of Khartoum. Soldiers found pamphlets at the scene produced by a group called the Beja Conference, which is made up of four eastern tribes who are fighting for autonomy.

24: Trade between Sudan and Indonesia in the last three years was worth US$52 million, SUNA reported. According to the news agency, Jakarta imported crude oil and food materials from Sudan, while the Sudan imported mostly construction materials from Indonesia.

25: A report by an American research centre says that the US might have bombed the wrong factory when its planes struck at a Khartoum pharmaceutical plant in 1998 accusing the plant of manufacturing chemical weapons. Detailed analysis by the California-based Centre for Non-proliferation Studies were released as the owner of the factory seeks compensation from the US government.

25: The Chairman of the Sudanese National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Mohammed Osman al-Mirghani has said that his party is committed to the Egyptian-Libyan peace initiative. In a statement, Mirghani further appealed to Libyan President, Muammar Gaddafi to work along with other African leaders to maintain a unified stance seeking a political solution in Sudan.

24: The SPLA has reiterated that they would participate in the Egyptian-Libyan peace initiative only if it took into account four issues it considers key to the resolution of the conflict. These are the separation of state and religion, the right of self-determination, the creation of an interim constitution and an interim government based on it.

24: Thousands of Sudanese Muslims attending prayers in Khartoum called for a holy war against Israel saying it is time for Arabs and Muslims to "move into action." Sheik Tanoun, who led the sermon at Khartoum's Republican Palace mosque, criticised a lack of Arab support for the Palestinians, saying, "Why should there be a meeting of foreign ministers or culture ministers of Arab states? We want a meeting of defence ministers, of chiefs of staff."

25: Egypt and Libya will hold a joint meeting in Tripoli on August 26 to discuss ways of activating the peace initiative they have drafted to end the Sudanese war. Egyptian Deputy Assistant Foreign Minister Rafiq Khalil will, on behalf of Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, lead an Egyptian delegation to the meeting.

25: President Bashir received a message from Nigerian President Obasanjo dealing with the Nigerian efforts for realising peace in Sudan, reported SUNA. Nigeria’s Minister of State, Dr. Osman Bogagi, who arrived in Sudan for a one-day visit, delivered the message to Bashir.

25: President Bashir has reiterated his government's concern with the rural areas and their development, reported SUNA. He said this while addressing a political rally at Al-Houshab near the city of Omdurman.

25: Presidential adviser, Ghazi Salah-Eddin, has convoyed a message from President Bashir to the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, dealing with the developments of the peace in Sudan as well as the progress of bilateral relations between the two countries, reported SUNA. Ghazi arrived in Addis Ababa for discussion with the Ethiopian government.

25: Sudan’s newly appointed Chief Justice, Jalal Mohamed Osman, was sworn in at the Republican Palace before the President Bashir, reported SUNA. Also sworn in were the new Commissioners of Shi'ariya Province and the headquarters of Nahral-Neil State, Mohamed Al-Ajib Ismail and Abul-Ma'ali Abdul-Rahman, respectively.

25: Acting Secretary-General of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), Habeeb Dutam affirmed OAU's support to the efforts being exerted by Khartoum to realise peace in the country, reported SUNA. This was during a meeting between Dutam and presidential adviser, Ghazi Salah-Eddin, who visited OAU’s Headquarters in Addis Ababa.

25: The leader of Uganda’s rebel Lord Resistance Army (LRA), Joseph Kony, who has reportedly been deserted by his followers, has turned his guns on the Sudanese government, reported a Ugandan daily, New Vision. The paper reported that Kony’s group had killed five Sudanese soldiers after Khartoum attacked a camp where he was keeping abducted civilians hostage.

26: The lawyer of a Tunisian man sentenced to 15 years in jail on spying and forgery charges has said that his client would appeal against the sentence. Ali bin Mustafa Hammed was sentenced on August 25 for forming a spy ring in Sudan to fabricate reports on the presence of Tunisian Islamic fundamentalists. In addition to the jail term, he was fined US$2,000.

26: Nile floods in Sudan have destroyed hundreds of homes and left thousands of families homeless this flood season, according to official preliminary estimates. The worst affected area was River Nile State in northern Sudan where 1,102 families were left without shelter when floods tore down 577 homes in 55 villages and partially damaged 811 others, the civil defence report said.

26: President Bashir presided over the meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the convening of the ruling NC party's general national conference, SUNA reported. In a statement, Secretary of the party’s Organisational Liaison Sector, Nafie Ali Nafie said that the Preparatory Committee had formed three sub-committees to oversee the organisation of the upcoming conference.

26: Sudan and Ethiopia discussed aspects of co-operation between the two countries in the field of transport, SUNA reported. During the meeting in Khartoum, the two countries deliberated about the implementation of the road linking Sudan and Ethiopia, which is expected to be inaugurated by the end of the current year.

26: Sudan’s Acting under-secretary of the Foreign Ministry, Dr. Mutarif Siddiq met with the European Union Ambassador to the country and discussed progress of Sudanese-European dialogue, reported SUNA. The two also discussed the peace process in the context of the IGAD initiative and what has been agreed upon during the last meeting in Nairobi.

26: Sudan’s Embassy in Kuwait will organise from September 8-13 a Sudan Cultural Week in collaboration with the Kuwaiti Council for Culture and Arts reported SUNA. The mission’s acting Charge d'Affaires, Abdalla Omer indicated that the Cultural Week would coincide with the celebrations of Kuwait marking its declaration as an Arab cultural country.

26: Sudan will host the meeting of the Ministries of Industry of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) in October, reported SUNA. The meeting will review a number of papers on industrial co-operation, the effect of industrial partnership, capacity building, industrial modernisation and the development of basic infrastructure conducive to boosting the flow of commodities.

26: Sudan’s Foreign Minister, Mustafa Ismail met with Burkina Faso President, Blaise Compaore and reviewed bilateral relations between the two countries, reported SUNA. This was during the meeting of the Bank of Community of Sahel and Sahara (Sen Sad) held in Burkina Faso during which the host was elected to replace Sudan as chairman of the executive council of the Bank.

26: A gift by the Sudanese government to the UN has been installed at the UN General Assembly Hall, reported SUNA. The black pottery antique, which dates back to the Meroetic era in the history of Sudan (350- 400 years BC), was given to the UN by President Bashir, on behalf of Sudan government and people.

27: President Bashir briefed his Cabinet on the outcome of the Smart Partnership Conference recently held in Kampala, Uganda, and the efforts of Sudan's delegation to the conference which focused on dialogue for mutual benefits, reported SUNA. Bashir also reviewed the outcome of the meetings he held with the heads of state who attended the Kampala conference on bilateral co-operation and realisation of peace in Sudan.

27: Sudan’s governing Council of Ministers approved an agreement between the government and OPEC's Fund for International Development, after a presentation by Minister of Finance and National Economy Abdul-Rahim Hamdi. According to the agreement, the Fund is to extend to Sudan a loan of US$10 million for the rehabilitation of the irrigation infrastructure in the Gezira Scheme.

27: The Sudanese government has approved the national plan of action on bio-diversity in the country, reported SUNA. This was based on a report by Sudan’s Minister of Environment and Physical Development, Maj. Gen. (Rtd.) Al-Tegani Adam Al-Tahir.

27: Sudan’s Minister of Justice, Ali Mohamed Osman Yassin, will lead Sudan’s delegation to the upcoming UN Conference on Racism scheduled to be held in South Africa in September, reported SUNA. Foreign Minister, Mustafa Ismail has said that he agreed with his Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Mahir to co-ordinate the delegations of Sudan and Egypt at the conference.

27: Riot police in Khartoum used teargas and batons to break up a demonstration by thousands of students, who were protesting against the doubling of bus fares, reported the BBC. The Sudanese government had earlier doubled fares for students after complaints from the mainly privately owned bus companies. The firms said they were losing money because they had to grant students half-price tickets.

27: Sudan’s governing Council of Ministers condemned the US over the 1998 bombing of the El-Shifa Pharmaceutical Plant in Khartoum. The Council said that the attack was a flagrant violation of international law, the sovereignty of an independent state and an aggression by a country that is supposed to be sponsor and supporter of the international peace and security.

27: Foreign Minister, Mustafa Ismail said that Egypt has agreed to a meeting in October to review the progress of the Egyptian-Libyan peace initiative. The meeting will be co-chaired by Sudan and Egypt’s Foreign Ministers.

27: A Tunisian delegation will arrive in Sudan to explore ways on how to promote economic ties between the two countries, reported SUNA. The delegation will seek which areas to invest in the country, added the news agency.

27: The Sudan Peace Act has precipitated a debate in the US over whether human rights should take precedence over the importance of keeping American capital markets open to foreigners, reported the Wall Street Journal. Wall Street interests are working to defeat the provisions, with public backing from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and the Bush administration, the paper reported while human rights and Christian groups want the provisions passed in whole.

27: Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail stressed that the court verdict issued against a Tunisian national convicted on espionage will not affect the Sudanese-Tunisian relations, reported SUNA. Ismail claimed that the Sudanese judiciary is independent, and that its decision was issued independently.

27: The Sudanese government appealed to the international community to exert pressure on the SPLA to agree to a resumption of peace negotiations, a Foreign Ministry statement said. The SPLA has said that self-determination for the south and separation between state and religion had to be included in the agenda of the negotiations.

27: Flooding along the Nile River in Sudan has inundated 80 villages, destroyed 2,000 homes and damaged 2,500 others and washed away at least two bridges, newspapers reported. But flooding has subsided in Khartoum, easing concerns that this year's floods could rival those of 1988, which killed dozens of people and left around two million homeless.

27: Sudan’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs Chol Deng met in Khartoum with the Nigerian Ambassador in Khartoum, who briefed him on preparations for the conference of southern Sudanese political forces, which is to be hosted by the Nigerian government in Abuja in October, reported SUNA. Deng welcomed the efforts by Nigeria to bring peace in Sudan, saying that Abuja is qualified to play a prominent role in Sudan’s peace process.

27: Khartoum affirmed its commitment to negotiate for peace within the framework of any initiative or forum that is conducive and will bring to an end the war, reported SUNA. This was in a statement issued by a spokesman in the Foreign Ministry, ambassador Yousif Fadul Ahmed, who was reacting to SPLA’s earlier announcement that the group will not to implement the Egyptian-Libyan peace initiative, until certain conditions are met.

27: President Bashir’s Adviser for Political Affairs, Gotbi Al-Mahdi, returned to Khartoum from Tehran, Iran, where he participated in the meetings of the Group of 77 (G77). On his arrival, Dr. Gotbi described the meetings as successful and came in a suitable time before the meetings of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which is to be held in Doha, Qatar in November.

27: Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail has said that a meeting of the joint high committee for closer integration between Sudan and Libya will be held in Khartoum in September. He said this after a trip to Libya where he met with the Secretary of the Libyan People's Committee for African Unity Ali Al-Teraiki and Secretary General of the Sudanese-Libyan Integration Mahdi Babou Nimir.

27: Presidential adviser, Gotbi Al-Mahdi affirmed the strong relations that link Sudan and Iran, reported SUNA. This is after he conveyed special messages to the Iranian President, Dr. Mohammed Khatami, from President Bahir, and another one from the Speaker of Sudan’s National Assembly, Ahmed Ibrahim Al-Tahir, to his Iranian counterpart, Ayatollah Korbi.

27: State Minister for Foreign Affairs Chol Deng met at his office with the Italian Ambassador to Khartoum and discussed the on going peace efforts through the IGAD and the Egyptian-Libyan initiative. Deng also praised Italy's role and continuous support for the peace process in Sudan within the framework of the IGAD Partners Forum.

28: Following reports of Sudanese army casualties in clashes with the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), the authorities in Khartoum said that they planned to engage in military operations against LRA forces operating in southern Sudan, news agencies reported. Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail said in a statement that Sudanese government forces would challenge any LRA military operations in Sudanese territory.

28: President Bashir met with his Foreign Minister, Mustafa Ismail who acquainted him with progress of Sudan foreign policy as well as regional and international developments, reported SUNA. Ismail said that he briefed Bashir, who is the Chairman of the Community of Sahel and Sahara States about his recent visit to Libya, Egypt and Burkina Faso.

28: Sudan’s State Minister at the Peace Department, Sultan Dhio Mattok, said that the proposed conference of the southern political forces, due to be held in the Nigerian capital, Abuja is an initiative by a number of exiled southern political figures notably Joseph Lagu and Bona Malawal. Mattok said that all the invited parties have confirmed their participation in the conference, including the SPLA.

28: A Turkish delegation, representing the Turkish businessmen and investors at the Turkish Chamber of Industry, is due to arrive in Khartoum on August 31, announced Deputy Director of the federal Investment Department at the Ministry of Industry and Investment, Al-Mahi Khalafalla. He stated that the delegation includes investors in the fields of petroleum, food, and textile industries, in addition to technology of agricultural equipment, cement and leather industries as well as sugar and pipes industry.

28: President Bashir, will participate in the upcoming celebrations in Libya marking the September 1, 1969 coup that brought president Muammar Gaddafi to power, SUNA reported.

28: Sudan’s Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Majzoub Al-Khalifa, has praised the leading role being played by the Arab Organisation for Agricultural Development (AOAD) for boosting the agricultural sector in the Arab World, through the implementation of highly advanced scientific methods and technologies. Addressing the opening session of the group’s meeting in Khartoum, Al-Khalifa stressed that Sudan agricultural potentialities will remain available for the interest of the Arab World to achieve Arab food security.

28: Foreign Minister, Mustafa Ismail, received in his office the Saudi Ambassador to Sudan, Abdalla Mohamed Al-Harthi. The ambassador conveyed a verbal message to the minister from his brother Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud Al-Faisal, dealing with bilateral relations between the two countries.

28: The government of the Republic of Comoros has consented to the nomination of Osman Al-Sayed as Sudan’s ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to that country, reported SUNA.

28: Sudan’s Minister of Federal Government, Dr. Nafie Ali Nafie, chaired a meeting preparing a National Conference of evaluating the Federal Government System, reported SUNA. Sayed said that a number of technical committees will prepare working papers for the conference, which include structures, powers and relations, legislation of federal rule, resources and services, social and cultural changes, local government, peace and security, human resources and the international experiences.

28: A teenage Sudanese refugee in the US has been charged with raping a woman and burning her hand with a cigarette outside his apartment. Daniel Majok Kachuol, 19, who was resettled in Arlington, Boston, six months ago, pleaded innocent to charges of sexual assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Middlesex District Court Judge Roanne Sragow set bail at US$ 50,000.

28: A teenage girl was hurt and four houses destroyed when Government of Sudan airplanes bombed three villages in the country’s Eastern Equatoria Province on August 26. According to information from the Catholic Diocese of Torit (DOT), which covers the Province near the Uganda border, the attacks on the villages of Ngaluma, Ikotos and Hiyala occurred on the morning of Sunday when the local Christian communities were attending the morning church services.

28: The Committee in charge of the Libyan Egyptian Joint Initiative for National Reconciliation in Sudan ended its meetings in Tripoli and asked the Sudanese parties to persevere for the achievement of further progress. It also called on the parties to refrain from issuing communiqués that are likely to hamper the efforts of the committee and the process that aims at establishing peace and stability in Sudan.

28: A Sudanese MP warned that authorities trying to tackle flooding in northern Sudan had overlooked the problem of rising waters in the south, the Khartoum Monitor reported. The legislator, Muhammadal-Hajj Baballah for Juba North Constituency, said the towns of Luri, Mongalla, and some islands south of Terakeka along the White Nile had been badly affected by flooding.

28: Sudan TV reported that flooding along the Nile had destroyed more than 3,500 houses, 40 schools and 60 health centres in the Al-Shurayq region of Nile River State, northern Sudan. Crops, grain stores, and livestock had all been lost, and thousands of families had been forced to leave their homes, Sudan TV said.

29: Egyptian Ambassador to Sudan Mohammed Assim has affirmed that consultations are underway between the two states to evaluate the positions of the Sudanese parties that declared their acceptance of the Egyptian-Libyan peace initiative, reported SUNA. The envoy also called on all parties for reaching an equation that preserves the unity of the Sudanese territories and people, realises just distribution of power and wealth, boosts democracy and guarantees the freedom of expression and worship.

29: Sudan’s Minister of Agriculture, Magzoub Al-Khalifa met with the Egyptian ambassador to Sudan, Mohamed Asim Ibrahim, and discussed the possibility of mapping out a timetable for implementing the agreements signed recently between Sudan and Egypt on agricultural co-operation. during the recent meetings of the higher joint committee in Khartoum. Al-Khalifa agreed on the importance of formation of joint work team to work out a feasibility study on development of Sesam research in Gadarif.

29: Sudan’s Supreme Civil Defence Council, chaired by the First Vice - President Osman Taha has called for providing the urgent needs and accommodation for the flood-affected citizens in different states, reported SUNA. The Council has also called for the formation of a co-ordinating committee to include representatives from the Federal Ministry of Health, the Sudanese Red Crescent and other organisations to see how to deal with the floods.

29: UNICEF has returned almost 3,500 former child soldiers who were fighting in Sudan's civil war to their families, the organisation said. It added that all but 70 of 3,551 child soldiers released by the SPLA in February had been returned to their communities, while 4,000 more were awaiting demobilisation.

29: A meeting of the Leadership Office of the ruling NC party chaired by President Bashir postponed the party’s general conference from September to October. The Secretary of the NC’s Organisational Sector Dr. Nafie Ali Nafie said the meeting had been postponed due to the current floods and ongoing planting.

29: Foreign Affairs minister, Mustafa Ismail welcomed a planned visit of a US Congress delegation to Sudan, expressing hope that it will contribute to removing the impediments affecting the Sudanese-American relations, reported SUNA. Ismail said that the visit is one of the rare visits by American Congress members to Sudan.

29: Sudan’s Federal Minister of Health, Dr. Ahmed Balal Osman has commended relations between Khartoum and Indonesian in the medical field, reported SUNA. The minister also reiterated the determination of the ministry to reactivate and develop the health agreements concluded between the two countries besides benefiting from the joint experience especially in the domain of medicines.

29: Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail briefed a US congressman on Sudan's foreign policy. Speaking to reporters following a meeting with Republican congressman from Louisiana, John Cooksey, Ismail said the two discussed Sudan's relations with neighbouring states and ways to improve its ties with the United States.

29: The Secretary General of the Ministry of Information and Communication, Abdul-Dafie Al-Khatib, chaired a meeting of the National Information Committee for the fifth population census in Sudan, scheduled for April 2003, reported SUNA. The meeting stressed the importance of a proper information plan to make the census a success.

29: UNICEF Executive Director, Carol Bellamy has expressed her delight with the return home of the former child soldiers in the SPLA. "These [returnee] children are among the lucky ones," she said. "Their demobilisation was hard-won but decisive, their relocation on World Food Programme (WFP) planes was extraordinary, and their stay in the transit camps preparing to return home was rewarding for all of us," she added.

29: Sudan’s Minister of Justice, Ali Mohammed Osman Yasin left for Durban, South Africa, at the head of Sudan delegation to the UN third Conference on racism. Rapporteur of the Advisory Council for Human Right, Yassir Sid-Ahmed, who is a member of the Sudanese delegation to the conference, told SUNA that the Sudan delegation will express its stance which opposes the Israeli aggressions in the Arab occupied lands and considers Zionism as equal to racism.

30: Sudan’s First Vice President, Osman Taha attended celebrations of the Ministry of Energy and Mining of the second anniversary of exporting the Sudanese oil, reported SUNA. The ministry's celebrations will continue for four days. The first shipment of the Sudanese oil was exported through Bashayer Port on August 30, 1999.

30: Sudan and Mauritania were singled out for practising slavery and racial discrimination in a study of countries on the Afro-Arab borderlands released by a United Nations research agency. Mali, Chad, and Niger were also named for practising racial discrimination and for causing tension between ethnic groups, notably the Tuareg.

30: Sudan has extended for two weeks the detention of opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi, who is charged with crimes against the state for signing a deal with the SPLA, a newspaper said. The independent al-Sahafa said judicial authorities issued the order for the Islamist ideologue's continued detention. Turabi was oved from prison to house arrest in May.

30: President Bush is close to naming former Missouri Sen. Jack Danforth as his special envoy for Sudan as part of the administration's plan to launch a more muscular effort to halt the Sudanese war, reported the Associated Press. Administration officials told the news agency that Danforth and Bush aides were in the final stages of negotiating terms for the post.

30: President Bashir, has hailed the deeds of the Armed Forces and its adherence to the national principles of aborting all the conspiracies against Sudan, reported SUNA. He added that the forces were succeeding in guaranteeing the unity and stability of the country, continuity of the development and re-building process and utilisation of the national resources, top of them is oil.

30: Sudan reaffirmed its commitment to the international agreements and charters on non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the country’s embassy to Britain said. Refuting reports that Khartoum was now using surface missiles, the mission said that Sudan has never attempted to possess weapons that cause mass destruction.

30: State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Chol Deng met with the Russian ambassador to Khartoum, reported SUNA. The meeting reviewed bilateral relations and means of strengthening them in all fields.

Deng praised Russia's supportive stances to Sudan, calling on Russia to bolster the bilateral economic, commercial and technological co-operation.

30: Sudan Foreign Ministry's Under-secretary, Dr. Mutraf Siddiq, met with the Head of the Canadian Embassy office in Khartoum in a meeting called to review bilateral relations and the country’s peace process within the context of the IGAD and the joint Egyptian-Libyan initiatives.

30: First Vice President, Osman Taha, was to inaugurate the first meeting of the national council for preparing and supervising the strategic programme of poverty alleviation in the country. The State Minister at the Ministry of Finance, Dr. Ahmed Majzoub, said that the meeting will get acquainted with implementation of the national programme within the framework of the poverty alleviation plan, especially in the fields of health, education and water.

31: President Bashir left Khartoum for Libya to attend that country’s celebrations marking the September 1, 1969 coup that brought President Muammar Gaddafi to power, reported SUNA. His peace adviser, Ghazi Salah Eddin and Foreign Minister, Mustafa Ismail accompanied him.

31: The SPLA called on the UN racism conference in South Africa to consider the Khartoum government an "apartheid" regime. "The regime in power is characterised by a religious and cultural arrogance, a contempt for cultures and beliefs of society ... and by attempts to remodel Sudanese citizens in the name of Islam," SPLA spokesman Yasser Arman said in the statement.

31: Three African presidents arrived in Libya for celebrations to mark the 32nd anniversary of the Libyan revolution. Sudanese President Bashir, Chad's Idriss Deby and Benin's General Mathieu Kerekou were welcomed by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

31: Morocco’s Agriculture Minister, Ismail Al-Alawe was being expected in Khartoum for a four-day visit on talks related to agricultural and industrial matters, reported SUNA. He will meet with Sudan’s Ministers of Agriculture, Irrigation, Industry, Foreign Trade and Animal Resources together with the Director of the Arab Authority for Agricultural Development.

31: Sudan earned US$712 million from its exports in the first half of the year, said the country’s Minister of Foreign Trade, Abdul-Hamid Musa Kasha. Most of these exports were agricultural commodities, industrial materials and oil.

31: Sudan’s Advisory Council of the Ministry of Energy and Mining was to hold its first meeting to discuss developments in the power industry, reported SUNA. In particular, the Council was to deliberate on future investment policies and ways to encourage local and foreign entrepreneurs to invest in the country’s energy and mining sub-sectors.

31: The Union of the Sudanese Businessmen and Employers, Chamber of Meat Exporters and Union of the Exporters of Vegetables and Fruits will participate in a trade exhibition in Jordan from September 30 - October 7, reported SUNA.The firms will exhibit their products under the auspices of the country’s Ministry of Agriculture, added the agency.

31: President Gaddafi said that a full integration of Libya, Egypt and Sudan is a priority since the three countries were one area, reported MENA. The Libyan leader voiced his belief that if southern Sudanese seceded, it will not serve their own interests.

September

1: Khartoum claimed that government troops had recaptured the strategic town of Raga in western Bahr al-Ghazal province from the SPLA, which seized it in early June. But there was no independent confirmation of the claim that was contained in a pro-government newspaper.

1: The British government donated UK£100,000 to assist Sudanese affected by floods in northern parts of the country, reported SUNA. Another UK£300,000 was given to the Red Cross to be utilised in water programme in Darfur states.

1: A group of 200 investors from Turkey arrived in Khartoum for a three-day visit to Sudan, reported SUNA. A statement by the Turkish Chamber of Industry said that the delegation aimed to develop the commercial co-operation between Sudan and Turkey, especially in heavy and light industries, textile, petroleum industries, sugar and cement.

1: Khartoum’s State Minister of Information and Communications Al-Tayeb Mustafa chaired the first meeting of a government committee seeking the implementation of a comprehensive national strategy on information in the country, reported SUNA. The meeting set up a technical sub-committee to study elements of capacity building in information and training.

1: A consortium of international oil companies has signed an agreement to begin operations in Block’s 3 and 7 in the country’s Upper Nile area. The companies which signed the agreement in a ceremony officiated by the country’s Minister of Energy and Mining, Dr. Awad Ahmed Al-Jaz are the Qatar’s Gulf Company, China’s China National Petroleum Company, United Arab Emirates Al-Thani Corporation and Sudan’s national oil firm, SUDAPET.

1: President Bashir received a written message from the President of Central Africa Republic, Felix Ange-Patasse, dealing with the bilateral relations between the two countries, reported SUNA. This was when the two leaders met during celebrations to mark the Libyan revolution in Tripoli.

1: Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ambassador Yusuf Fadul has affirmed the Sudanese government's commitment not to use children as soldiers. Commenting about the return of former child soldiers in the SPLA to their families, Fadul said that the returning of the former recruits “constitutes a condemnation to the practices of the rebel movement of coercive recruitment of children.”

1: President Bashir met with Libyan leader Gaddafi in Tripoli and praised the efforts being exerted by Gaddafi to end the Sudanese war, reported SUNA. Bashir commended Gaddafi for his role in establishing the African Union and the Sahel and Sahara Community.

2: Unknown assailants ambushed a vehicle belonging to Catholic Relief Services in northern Uganda killing six people, AP reported. According to CRS country director for Sudan, Paul Townsend, the attack took place near Adjumani, 350 kilometres north of Kampala as the vehicle returned from the southern Sudanese border town of Nimule where CRS has a camp that co-ordinates its food aid operations in Sudan.

2: President Bashir met in Libya with a Nigerian delegation and acknowledged Nigeria's role in realising peace in Sudan, reported SUNA. The meeting also dealt with the upcoming conference on peace in Sudan that it to be sponsored by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abuja in October.

2: Sudan’s Minister of Energy and Mining, Awad Ahmed al-Jaz marked the second year since Sudan started exporting oil by inaugurating in Omdurman, a factory dealing in oil products, the Mathew Plant for Engine Oil Products. Al-Jaz said that the plant, an affiliate to Mathew Petroleum (Sudan) Company had a production capacity of 60,000 metric tonnes a year, exceeding the country's needs estimated at 40,000 metric tonnes.

2: President Bashir hailed the achievements of the Libyan government saying that the country’s September First Revolution had effected economic and social development in Libya and laid important basis for popular participation, reported SUN A. He also referred to the Revolution's role in supporting the Arab and African issues.

2: The SPLA claimed that its forces had killed a government soldier during fighting near Raga in western Bahr el Ghazal, reported AP. Earlier; state-run media reported that government troops had retaken the town.

2: The meeting of the Joint Sudanese-Ethiopian political sub-committee will be held in Khartoum from September 5 –7, reported SUNA. The sub-committee meets every three months to review issues agreed upon by the joint political committees of the two countries.

2: First Vice President Osman Taha met in Khartoum with the Chairman of the Co-ordination Council for the Southern States, Brigadier Galwak Deng and was briefed about relief efforts in southern Sudan, reported SUNA. In a statement, Brig. Deng said that they had also discussed the state of roads, water and electricity power in Juba, Malakal and other southern towns.

2:The trial of three members of Sudan's security forces charged with murdering a member of an Islamic opposition party opened in a criminal court in Khartoum. Six security agents have been charged with killing Ali Hamed al-Bashir, a deputy of the Popular National Congress (PNC) party of Hassan al-Turabi.

3:The Ugandan army said that it wanted to be given permission by Khartoum to enter up to 120km inside Sudan to dismantle camps run by the rebel group, LRA, reported a weekly newspaper, The East African. Sudan has promised to shut down these camps, but military sources in Kampala said that should Sudan fail, then Ugandan forces should be given the permission to destroy the camps.

3: The SPLA strongly denied claims by Khartoum that government troops had captured Raga in western Bahr el Ghazal province. SPLA spokesman Samson Kwaje told AFP that "SPLA forces were in full control of Raga."

3: This year's poor crops in Sudan have eliminated the country as a source of sorghum to satisfy demand in European countries reported BridgeNews. Spain, which is one of the affected countries as it imports 200, 000 tonnes of sorghum from Sudan, has asked the EU Grains Management Committee to authorise Madrid to import sorghum at a reduced tariff from elsewhere.

3: Sudan’s Minister of Justice Ali Mohammed Osman Yassin asked the UN Conference against Racism that it was imperative that the meeting addressed and condemned practices by Israel in relation to Palestinians, reported SUNA. Yassin said Israel’s policies of displacing, blockading and shooting at Palestinians were a flagrant defiance of the international community and legality.

3: A delegation of the Charity Foundation of Mohamed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) arrived in Khartoum to offer assistance to the flood-affected citizens in Nahral-Neil State, reported SUNA. A press statement by the relief agency said the group had brought food materials, medicines, blankets, insecticides and clothes worth US$50,000.

3: The Sudan government supported National Press Council together with UNICEF will from September 8-13 organise a workshop in Khartoum to deliberate media and gender issues, reported SUNA. The seminar will also include computer-training sessions for journalists.

4: The Sudanese government received notification from the IGAD Secretariat on postponement of peace talks between Khartoum and the SPLA scheduled for September 4 in Nairobi, reported SUNA. The acting Under-secretary in the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Mutrif Siddiq told the news agency that by the time they received the notification an advance delegation had already arrived in Nairobi.

4: Sudan’s Minister of Justice, Ali Mohamed Osman Yassin, met with Rev. Jesse Jackson during the UN conference on racism and refuted allegations that Khartoum abets slavery in the country, reported SUNA. Yassin also met with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Secretary General of the conference, Ms. Mary Robinson and reviewed the human rights situation in Sudan.

4: President Bashir has awarded Mir Ali Asghar Al-Musowi, Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Sudan, the Two Niles Order (first class) in recognition of his role in boosting bilateral relations between the two countries, reported SUNA. This came when President Al-Bashir received the ambassador on the occasion of the expiry of his assignment to Sudan.

4: Foreign Affairs minister Mustafa Ismail met with the Chinese ambassador in Khartoum and discussed the progress of the relations between Sudan and China especially in relation to investment opportunities and the various projects being implemented by the Chinese companies in Sudan.

4: The Secretary General of the ruling NC party, Ibrahim Ahmed Omar, denied media reports that his party was seeking to mend fences with Turabi’s PNC party. Omar denied press reports that 185 members of the NC had presented a memorandum aimed at bringing the PNC back to the fold.

4: Oil production in Sudan is a bridge of peace, development and economic cooperation regionally and internationally, Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail said. "Oil is a major factor in formulating Sudan's foreign policy," Ismail stressed, adding that oil has contributed a great deal to the improvement of Sudan's relations with Arab, African and other countries.

5: Six people including three children were killed and a similar number injured after a Government of Sudan bomber dropped 24 bombs on a village in the country's southern Eastern Equatoria region on September 3. A spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Torit (DOT) that covers the affected area said three of the injured were in critical condition.

5: The US is preparing an initiative to end the Sudanese civil war, US officials said. The plan, expected to include up to US$30-million in humanitarian and relief aid, is to be led by former US senator John Danforth who the officials said could be named Washington's point man for Sudan.

5: The Sudanese government welcomed news that the United States said it wanted to play a greater role in seeking peace in Sudan, Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail said. The minister also welcomed reports of the imminent nomination of a US peace envoy to Sudan, saying "this move will mark a new chapter in US-Sudanese relations, which we hope will help put an end to the war and re-establish peace."

5: The UN Security Council plans to lift its five-year-old sanctions on Sudan this month with the agreement of the US, Council president Jean-David Levitte of France said. Outlining the Council's programme of work, Levitte said that he had scheduled a September 17 meeting to adopt a resolution to remove the sanctions.

5: The Sudanese government cautiously welcomed news that the US will unveil an initiative of its own to end Sudan's 18-year civil war. The state-run Al-Anbaa daily quoted an official as greeting any US plan to reconcile the warring parties "on condition that such an initiative be based on neutrality."

5: The Advisor of Sudan’s Foreign Affairs minister, Awad-Al-Karim Fadalla, was elected chairman of the experts' meeting to discuss a draft agreement for setting up a mechanism for early warning of the IGAD, reported SUNA. This came in the inaugural session of the experts' meeting in Addis Ababa.

5: Sudan’s Minister of Information and Communication, Mahdi Ibrahim, has affirmed the government confidence in the Egyptian-Libyan peace initiative, reported SUNA. Ibrahim said that the call of the Sudanese parties to start dialogue will be a real test for the intentions and seriousness of the Sudanese parties, added the agency.

6: Former US Senator John C. Danforth of Missouri is President Bush's choice as a special envoy to Sudan, an administration officials told AP. It was reported that the former Republican lawmaker was meeting Bush ``to get my marching orders direct from him, to hear what he says and to hear why this is important to him.''

6: Foreign Minister, Mustafa Ismail claimed that Sudan had fulfilled all its obligations concerning the issue of the sanctions imposed on it by Security Council. The minister was commenting on statements by the Chairman of the Security Council and envoy of France at the council, who said that the Security Council has fixed September 17 as a date for discussing the issue of lifting the sanctions from Sudan.

6: Japan has donated emergency aid worth US$67,316 to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (Sudan Delegation) to assist flood victims in the country’s northern areas, reported SUNA. The agency added that Japan hopes that by extending the aid, Tokyo would like to strengthen its relations with Khartoum.

6: Foreign Minister, Mustafa Ismail, was due to head Sudan's delegation for a meeting of the Ministerial Council of the Arab League to be held in Cairo on September 9, reported SUNA. According to the news agency, the meeting will discuss bilateral relations, the Sudan peace issue and the situation at the Middle East especially the Palestinian question.

6: A German company, GHH has expressed desire to invest in the Sudan in the domain of electricity generation reported SUNA. The country’s Minister of Energy and Mining, Awad Ahmed Al-Jazz, who met with a delegation from the company, expressed the readiness of his ministry and the National Electricity Corporation to provide them with all the necessary information and assistance.

6: The SPLA gave a cautious welcome to news of a US initiative to end the 18-year civil war in Sudan, saying Washington had the power to advance the cause of peace. Jurkuch Barach, SPLA’s representative to Arab countries, said if the United States gets involved, "there can be a move forward ... because they are the only power we have in the world."

6: Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail said that his government was ready to co-operate with the new US peace envoy to Sudan. Speaking shortly before US President George Bush formally announced the appointment, he said his "government intended to give full freedom of action" to the US envoy so that he can learn about the situation.

7: The head of Sudan's conference of Roman Catholic bishops welcomed the appointment by US President Bush of a special envoy to Sudan, saying it was a positive step towards peace. "We welcome any new moves for peace and pray for their success and that includes America's new role in ending the war," Archbishop Paulino Lukudu Loro told AFP.

7: Uganda’s Third Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, James Wapakhabulo told the UN conference on racism, that President Museveni is not part of the causes of the Sudan civil war, reported a Ugandan daily, New Vision. "The civil war in Sudan began in 1956 while President Yoweri Museveni was attending primary school…The current President of Uganda could not have caused the conflict…” said Wapakhabulo.

7: Meetings of the Higher Committee for integration between Sudan and Libya will take place in Khartoum soon to discuss the reactivation of bilateral relations between the two countries, areas of joint investment and the issue of peace in Sudan, reported SUNA. The meeting is to be chaired by First Vice President, Osman Taha.

7: Sudan’s Catholic Bishops accused foreign oil companies of complicity in brutal human rights abuses being committed by Khartoum during the course of the war. In a statement issued at the end of their three-week annual plenary, the bishops said that the war had intensified in the last three years thanks in part to the government’s profits from investment by international oil firms in the country.

7: Foreign Minister, Mustafa Ismail met with the Saudi ambassador to Khartoum, Abdallah Mohamed Al-Harthi and discussed bilateral relations between the two countries and peace in Sudan, reported SUNA. The meeting also touched on the Palestinian issue in the face of the escalating violence in the Middle East.

7: Talisman said the appointment by the US of a special envoy to Sudan is "an extremely positive step" that could pave the way to engagement between the two countries, reported a Canadian paper, Financial Post. "The company is extremely pleased that they are going to become part of the process, because they carry a lot of weight around the world," said Edward Bogle, vice-president of exploration at Talisman.

7: Foreign Minister, Mustafa Ismail met with the Egyptian ambassador to Sudan, Mohamed Asim Ibrahim and discussed Egypt's efforts for ending the violence in the Middle East, reported SUNA. The meeting also centred on speeding up implementation of agreements signed recently by the joint Sudanese - Egyptian Higher Committee.

7: Former Secretary General of OAU, Salim Ahmed Salim thanked Sudan as the only country to have honoured him twice via awarding him the highest national awards, reported SUNA. This was during a party held in Khartoum to honour Ahmed on the expiry of his office term as OAU’s Secretary General.

7: A Sudanese pro-government militia has accused the Ugandan LRA rebels of burning down villages in southern Sudan after losing the support of Khartoum. The head of the Equatoria Defence Force (EDF), Theophilus Ochang, was quoted as saying that several people were killed when LRA fighters torched a number of villages after President Bashir said recently that he would no longer provide them with military or logistical support.

8: Ethiopia and the Sudan have expressed their satisfaction over the implementation of the agreements signed last May by the two sides, the Ethiopian Herald newspaper reported. At the fifth Ethiopian-Sudanese Joint Ministerial Commission meeting held in Addis Ababa in May, the two sides signed the agreements mainly focusing on the need to promote the road and telecommunications links between the two countries.

8: The SPLA welcomed the US government's appointment of a special envoy to Sudan and promised to co-operate fully with the envoy. “The Movement (SPLA) wishes to assure the US government that it will co-operate fully with the special envoy in his endeavour towards bringing the war to a just and speedy end through a just, peaceful and lasting political settlement," said the group in a statement.

8: Egypt and Libya will push on with their Sudanese peace plan, despite Washington's decision to send a special envoy to help end the war, said Egypt's Foreign Affairs minister, Ahmed Maher. This was after he had held talks in Cairo with Libyan African Unity Minister Ali Abdel Salem Triki on ways of "restarting the Egyptian-Libyan initiative for a global reconciliation in Sudan." Maher quoted the Libyan minister as saying he believed the US envoy had only a small chance of ending the fighting.

8: President Bashir affirmed Sudan's determination and keenness to eradicate illiteracy within five years, reported SUNA. He announced the setting up of a government committee to follow up the progress of the national anti-illiteracy campaign in Sudan, which is to be headed by the First Vice President, Osman Taha.

8: Sudan’sForeign Minister Mustafa Ismail left for Cairo at the head of Sudan delegation for participation at the meetings of the Arab League's ministerial council, reported SUNA. The agency said that the meeting will discuss a number of issues top of them being the situation at the Middle East, Afro-Arab and the Arab-European relations and peace in Sudan.

8: Sudan’s Minister of Social Welfare and Development, Samya Ahmed Mohammed, will lead the country’s delegation to a UN summit on children scheduled to be held in New York between September 19-21. The meeting will discuss reports on the state of the world’s children since the last summit in 1990.

9: Sudan has welcomed Washington's appointment of a special envoy charged with brokering peace in the country, committing itself to talks with him, SUNA reported. Sudan's State Minister for Foreign Relations, Tiggani Saleh Fidail, expressed his country's "readiness ... to receive the US envoy and to engage in a dialogue with him within the framework of the mission assigned to him." Fidail spoke after a meeting with American Charge d'Affaires Raymond Brown in Khartoum.

9: The Secretary-general of the ruling NC party, Ibrahim Ahmed Omar, said his party has not received any US peace plan, but "we welcome any initiative that works to realise peace in the country," the Khartoum government daily al-Anbaa reported. Washington announced a peace plan when it named a special envoy for Sudan.

9: UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Kenzo Oshima and the UN Special Envoy for Sudan, Tom Eric Vraalsen, arrived in Sudan for a four-day visit. Upon arrival, Oshima said that he will discuss overcoming obstacles facing humanitarian operations in Sudan with the government and the SPLA.

9: IGAD expects a breakthrough in the peace negotiations of the Sudanese war, reported a Kenyan weekly paper, the Sunday Times. Bashir Attalla, IGAD's Executive Secretary, was quoted as saying that a permanent negotiations committee has been appointed and has been meeting in Nairobi to see how it can implement the declaration of principles that was signed in 1997 for a cease-fire, separation of religion and state and the constitutional conference.

10: The Catholic Archbishop of Kenyan port town of Mombasa, John Njenga, has asked the Kenyan government not to import oil from Sudan but instead use its closeness with the Khartoum government to bring lasting peace in the country. The cleric who was celebrating a mass attended by 12 Sudanese Catholic bishops said that if Kenya bought oil from Sudan that would be tantamount “to supporting the ongoing atrocities there.”

10: The Sudanese government ordered the temporary suspension of the country’s sole English-language paper, the Khartoum Monitor. The National Press Council ordered the daily banned for three days starting September 11 for articles said to have damaged relations between northern and southern Sudan.

10: Kuwait and Sudan have signed a memorandum of understanding on cultural cooperation, reported SUNA. Kuwaiti Minister of Information and Chairman of the National Council for Culture and Arts, Sheikh Ahmed Al-Fahd Al-Ahmed Al-Jabir Al-Sabah signed for Kuwait, while Minister of Culture and Tourism, Abdel-Basit Abdel-Majid signed for the Sudanese side.

10: Sudanese Information Minister Mahdi Ibrahim has branded John Garang a "lunatic" and accused him of making peace negotiations impossible. "Garang is a lunatic. He changes the agenda, he has opposed all (Sudanese) governments and all initiatives," he told reporters in Cairo after a meeting between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Sudan's foreign minister, Mustafa Ismail.

11: The Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (Supkem) criticised a statement by the Catholic Archbishop of Mombasa, John Njenga, which urged the Kenya government not to import oil from Sudan, reported Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper. Supkem’s National Organising Secretary, Shariff Hussein Omar said that Sudan was a member of the COMESA trade block and there was nothing wrong with Nairobi importing oil from Sudan.

11: Egypt’s President Mubarak sent a message to President Bashir saying Cairo is "committed to preserving the national and territorial unity of Sudan, and rejects all attempts to divide it." This is according to a statement issued by the Egyptian Information Minister Safwat al-Sherif.

11: The World Food Programme (WFP) said that it was distributing food to people displaced by fighting in the oil-rich Unity state after reports showed malnutrition rates were alarmingly high.

The WFP said 2,000 tonnes of food would be distributed to around 53,000 people in Bentiu and Rubkona towns, most of them displaced by an upsurge of the fighting.

11: Sudan’s Minister of Education, Ali Tamim Fartak, returned to the country from Switzerland where he led the country’s delegation to the International Education Conference, reported SUNA. Fartak said that he discussed with participants the implementation of Sudan's strategy to realise the slogan of "Education for All" by the year 2015.

11: President Bashir has reaffirmed his commitment to cooperate with the UN particularly in the humanitarian field, reported SUNA. He made the pledge during a meeting with the UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Kenzo Oshima.

11: President Bashir, left for Saudi Arabia for a two-day visit during which he will meet with King Fahd bin Abdul-Aziz. Bashir was accompanied by the Minister of the Presidency of the Republic, Gen. Salah Mohamed Mohamed Salih, Foreign Minister, Mustafa Ismail, and the State Minister at the Peace Department, Iddris Mohamed Abdul-Ghader.

11: Foreign Affairs minister, Mustafa Ismail during a visit to Saudi Arabia denounced the terrorist attacks on a number of American targets in New York and Washington. He offered his condolences to the American government and people, reaffirming Khartoum’s willingness to co-operate fully with the US government and the international community to combat all forms of terrorism and bring the perpetrators to justice.

11: Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd Ibn Abdul-Aziz met in Kuwait with Sudanese President Bashir and discussed ways of boosting bilateral ties between the two countries. The two leaders conferred on economic cooperation, the situation in the Middle East and the establishment of joint investment projects in Sudan.

12: Talisman said it had no plans to pull its estimated 125 Canadian employees out of the war-torn Sudan following terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon. “No, we really don't have anything to say about it and have no plans to pull our staff out of Sudan,'' said a Talisman spokesman.

12: President Bashir condemned the multiple terrorist attacks in the US and voiced hope that Washington's reaction to them will be "unemotional." Sudan was attacked by American missiles in 1998 for its alleged links to Osama bin Laden, a Saudi terrorist accused to have masterminded the bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

12: Meetings of the 5th session of the High Sudanese-Libyan integration Committee started in Khartoum under the joint-chairmanship of First Vice-President Osman Taha and the Secretary of the Libyan General People's Committee, Mubarak Al-Shamikh. The meeting talked over Sudan's vast natural resources, which they said made the country a solid base for Arab and African unity.

12: The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) has agreed to establish a US$2million regional centre for industrial development in Khartoum, reported SUNA. Khartoum’s Minister of Industry and Investment Dr. Jalal Yousif Al-Digair said that UNIDO had also agreed to pay US$170,000 to boost an industrial survey in Sudan.

12: Sudan’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Chol Deng met with the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for Displaced Peoples, Francis Deng, reported SUNA. The meeting reviewed conditions of the displaced in Sudan and the government's efforts towards them, where the state minister stressed that the displaced enjoy all citizenship rights.

13: Talisman’s shares spiralled on the Canadian stock market over fears the oil and gas giant will be punished for its operations in Sudan, reported the Canadian Press wire agency. Talisman stock fell nearly eight per cent or US$4.65 to US$55.85 as the impact of the terrorist attack on New York was absorbed by Canadian investors. But analysts said the company - with a vast Canadian and international oil and gas portfolio and lucrative cash flows - wouldn’t face a sustained drop in its share price.

13: Sudan and Libya expressed hope that the devastating terror attacks in the US would not delay the lifting of terrorism-linked sanctions on their countries, reported AFP. Libyan Prime Minister Mubarak al-Shamikh and Sudan's First Vice President Osman Taha, in a joint press conference in Khartoum, spoke of positive signs for the lifting of sanctions before the attacks.

13: A Sudanese court has extended for two weeks the house arrest of Turabi and four of his colleagues, a Khartoum newspaper reported. The Al Anbaa government daily said the Khartoum criminal court ordered the move against Turabi and the executives in his PNC party after prosecutors said they needed to pursue their investigation.

13: The UN Security Council delayed a meeting to lift symbolic sanctions against Sudan because of attacks against the World Trade Centre and Pentagon, diplomats reported. US officials told Council members the time was not ripe, and sponsors of the resolution to end the bans agreed to put it off, the envoys said. France's UN Ambassador Jean-David Levitte, the current Council president had earlier said the 15-member body had been scheduled to discuss the embargoes and then vote to lift them on September 17.

13: President Bashir and his First Vice President Osman Taha send condolence messages to US President George Bush and the US Vice President, Dick Cheney expressing solidarity message with Americans over the bombing of New York and Washington, reported SUNA. Foreign Affairs minister, Mustafa Ismail also sent a similar message to his American counterpart Colin Powell.

13: President Bashir affirmed that the government will agree on fixing a number of days and weeks during which fighting stops completely to enable the vaccination of children in war torn areas, reported SUNA. Bashir said this while addressing meeting of Sudanese children, which was organised in Khartoum by the General Union of Sudanese Women and UNICEF.

13: President Bashir has been nominated as deputy chairman of the World Food Summit for a five-year term and chairman of a round-table meeting scheduled to be convened in Rome from November 5-9, SUNA reported. Bashir’s appointment was announced in Khartoum by Sudan's permanent envoy to the Italy based Summit, Prof. Mohammed Saeed Harbi.

13: President Bashir was briefed on the outcome of the meetings of the 5th session of the ministerial committee for Sudanese-Libyan integration, reported SUNA. The meeting discussed joint investment opportunities between the two countries and the construction of roads linking Libya and Sudan.

13: Humanitarian aid by UN to the Sudanese affected by drought and floods was due to begin on September 14, announced the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Humanitarian Affairs, Kenzo Oshima, reported SUNA.

13: A Qatari plane carrying relief aid from Qatar for flood victims arrived in Khartoum, reported SUNA. The 45 tonnes of relief assistance which was received by the General Director of the Police Forces, Gen. Omar Al-Hudairi, Deputy Director of the Commission for Humanitarian Aid Abdel-Wahab Ahmed Mohamed, and the ambassador of Qatar to Sudan Ali bin Mohamed Al-Osairi included food materials, medicines, blankets and tents.

SCIO, October 15, 2001 scio-051-a

Chronology

September

15: The Imam of Khartoum's largest mosque has told worshippers that the terrorist attacks on the US were crimes that should never have happened. But the cleric warned that America should not punish all Muslims and Arabs for the chaos, death and destruction.

15: Troubled nations counting on the US to help resolve their wars and lead them to democracy could be abandoned in the wake of the terrorist attacks in the US, former Sudanese premier, Sadiq el-Mahdi has said. But Mahdi added that this depends on the US response to terrorism.

15: UN Secretary General's Envoy for Displaced People, Francis Deng visited areas where displaced people are living in Khartoum. Deng toured the Sharq Al-Neil, Karari and Omdurman areas, as he inspected government efforts to deal with the plight of the country’s displaced.

15: Khartoum’s Minister of Justice, Ali Osman Yassin has returned home from South Africa where he led Sudan delegation to UN conference against racism, reported the official Sudan News Agency (SUNA). During the UN meeting, Yassin refuted allegations that Sudan practiced slavery.

15: Sudan’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Mustafa Ismail, has said that the government will proceed with the Egyptian-Libyan peace initiative since it sanctions the country’s national unity, reported SUNA. Ismail also said that the Arab Fund for Rehabilitating the South represents a helping hand to the initiative.

15: Southern Sudan political and military leaders have been invited to attend a peace conference later in October in Abuja, Nigeria reported SUNA. According to the Nigeria’s ambassador to Khartoum, Al Haj-Osman Bello, the leader of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA), John Garang, has agreed to attend the meeting.

15: Sudan’s Federal Minister of Health, Dr. Ahmed Balal has inaugurated in Khartoum a gynaecological clinic funded by the International Islamic Medical Organisation (IIMO), reported SUNA. The Chairman of IIOM's Board of Trustees, Al-Guzuli Dafa'la, said that clinic was similar to the one his organisation had established in Southern Darfur State for people displaced from Raga in western Bahr el Ghazal.

15: Khartoum’s Information and Communication Minister, Mahdi Ibrahim has said that Sudan’s denunciation of the bombing of the US was a reflection of the government’s sincerity when it comes to terrorism, reported SUNA. Mahdi added that Sudan rejects all acts of terrorism as well as the killing of innocent people and destruction of civilian establishments.

15: A delegation of Kuwait investors was due to arrive in Khartoum to assess investment opportunities in the country, reported SUNA. According to Sudan ambassador to Kuwait, Abdul-Moniem Mabrouk, the businessmen will explore investment opportunities in energy, construction and service industries.

15:Former premier, Sadiq al-Mahdi has said that he has no reservations on the Libyan Egyptian peace initiative, reported the official Kuwait News Agency (KUNA). Mahdi said that the initiative aimed to find a political solution for the Sudanese crisis, noting that he only has some additional notes that could activate it.

15: Sudan has reiterated its condemnation of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington and said it would support any means of confronting terrorism, a government spokesman said. Yousuf Fadul Ahmed told reporters that a government committee had met to discuss terrorism and renewed Sudan's condemnation of any kind of terrorism.

15: Khartoum’s Minister of Information and Communication, Mahdi Ibrahim has said that the Egyptian - Libyan peace initiative was capable of realising peace in the country, reported SUNA. He added that a recently announced peace plan by the US was still in the formulation stage with the Bush administration consulting with internal and external forces.

15: Germany's national carrier, Lufthansa, has said that it was suspending flights to Khartoum for two weeks without giving a reason. An official in the company's office in Khartoum said that the suspension would be effective from September 15 until October 1.

15: Khartoum’s Minister of Information and Communication, Mahdi Ibrahim has described his recent visit to Egypt as successful after the two countries signed cooperation agreements in the field of information, reported SUNA. He said Sudan and Egypt had agreed to cooperate in preparing joint programmes, exchanging programmes and developing the Radio of the Nile Valley.

15: A Chinese investment delegation was due to arrive in Khartoum on a five-day visit to Sudan, reported SUNA. The Deputy Director of the Investment Authority, Al-Mahi Khalafallah said that the delegation would explore investment opportunities particularly in the textile and petro-chemical industries.

16: Sudanese authorities were quoted as saying they did not expect the US to launch military strikes on Khartoum as part of America’s war on terrorism. Foreign Affairs Minister Mustafa Ismail said that dialogue between Sudan and the US "makes us rule out any military strike against Sudan."

16: The US has informed Khartoum that a trip to Sudan by America’s new peace envoy has been postponed following terrorist attacks on the US. Foreign Affairs Minister Mustafa Ismail said his government has been notified by the US charge d'affaires in Khartoum, Raymond Brown of the postponement of a visit in November by the envoy, John Danforth.

16: The UN Secretary General Special Envoy For Displaced People, Francis Deng visited the flood-hit state of Nahral-Neil, reported SUNA. The state’s Governor, Ibrahim Mahmoud, briefed Deng on the dimension of damage caused by the floods and the efforts by the government and international organisations to contain the situation.

16: The Saudi Ministry of Hajj (pilgrimage) has accepted proposals by the Sudanese delegation on the number of the Sudanese pilgrims this year, reported SUNA. Khartoum has said that it will allow 18,000 pilgrims for the annual religious event.

16: Khartoum’s Consultative Council of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs met to review Sudan’s foreign policy in the wake of the bombings in the US, reported SUNA. Government spokesman, Yousif Fadl, told the news agency that the Council discussed international terrorism and affirmed Sudan's rejection of all forms of terrorism.

17: Eight members of a Turkana family in Kenya were killed when 20 heavily armed Toposa militiamen from Sudan raided their home reported a Kenyan daily newspaper, East African Standard. According to the paper, the attack occurred a few kilometres from Kenya’s northern town of Lokichoggio, which is used to coordinate humanitarian operations for southern Sudan.

17: Seeking to diminish any chances Washington might target Sudan anew in retaliation for anti-US attacks, Khartoum is taking a clear stand against terrorism and playing up support for the US, reported AFP. Although Sudan does not expect another US strike like the one in 1998 after bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Sudanese officials are nonetheless cautious, added the news agency.

17: The Sudanese government is ready to help the US fight terrorism, President Omar el Bashir’s adviser for political affairs, Gotbi al Mahdi said. However, Mahdi expressed concern that American Christian and Jewish groups might use the recent bombing of the US to rally hatred for Sudan.

17: Ministers of agriculture from six countries in eastern African were due to start a two-day meeting in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha to draw up strategies for improving control of pests in the region. Ministers from Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda will attend the meeting, said Peter Odiyo, acting Director of the Desert Locust Control Organisation for Eastern Africa.

17: Sudan has boosted measures to prove it is keeping out Islamic militants, Sudanese media said. “The government has imposed strict security measures on granting entry visas for those coming to Sudan through airports and seaports as a precaution against the infiltration of terrorist elements,” the independent al-Ayam newspaper said. “We are keen that Sudan does not become a crossing point, a place of escape or stay,” said the paper quoting Foreign Affairs Minister Mustafa Ismail.

17: Sudan is among ten countries that the US has implicated in the recent bombing of New York and Washington, reported a weekly Kenyan paper, The East African. The paper said the Khartoum was one of the countries that might be targeted when the US government finally decides to hit back on states perceived to be harbouring terrorists.

17:Sudan’s Charge d’Affaires in Kampala, Sirajuddin Mohammed claimed that the SPLA had run out of political ideas regarding the Sudanese war, reported The East African newspaper. The envoy claimed that the only difference between the SPLA and Uganda’s Lords Resistance Army (LRA) rebels was that the former had been existence for a longer time.

17: US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, told a news conference in Washington “Sudan has become suddenly much more interested and active in working with us on various items. So there are a lot of things that are going on that will become more manifest as time goes on.” Powell this after Khartoum pledged to assist American in dealing with international terrorists.

17: Uganda has re-opened her embassy in Khartoum as part of overtures to restore diplomatic relations between the two countries, said Kampala’s Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ralph Ochan. “We agreed that we should open our diplomatic mission at the level of Charge d’Affaires,” he added.

18: Sudan has no reason to fear US strikes, as no terrorist group exists in the country, said First Vice-President, Osman Taha. Speaking at a rally in El-Obeid in the Nuba Mountains, Taha cited a speech by US President George Bush in which he said the US reaction to the attacks will not be indiscriminate or out of anger.

18: Sudan began studying plans for the Egyptian-Libyan peace initiative, reported AFP. A memorandum prepared to that effect contains questions on the venue, date, agenda and participants in the peace conference, said Egypt’s ambassador to Khartoum, Mohamed Asim Ibrahim.

18: Foreign Affairs minister, Mustafa Ismail has said Khartoum was firm in its “position to fight international terrorism.”He said this after signing a book of condolences at the US Embassy in Khartoum honouring the victims of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

18: Uganda expects its embassy in Khartoum to reopen by the end of October, a foreign affairs ministry official said. James Mugume, the acting Permanent Secretary in the country’s Foreign Affairs ministry said that Kampala’s acting consul in Khartoum, Paul Mukumbya, would be joined later by new Charge d'Affaires, Akubakar Nadduli.

18: Sudan has invited India to participate in a trade exhibition to be held at Khartoum in 2002. India's total trade with Sudan stood at US$105 million last year comprising US$97.61 million of exports from India and US$7.39 million of imports from Sudan.

18: The Speaker of Sudan’s National Assembly, Ahmed Ibrahim Al-Tahir, received a report from the Chairman of the General Elections Commission (GEC), Abdel-Moneim Al-Zein Al-Nahas, on the parliamentary elections held between October to December last year, reported SUNA. Al-Tahir commended the GEC for holding the polls and preparing the final report.

18: Khartoum’s Legal Training and Reform Institute, in collaboration with UNICEF, was due to organise in the capital, a three-day workshop on women rights under Sharia and the Sudanese legislation and the international conventions under globalisation.

18: Khartoum said that it would participate at the third meeting of the states signatories of the agreement banning use, storage, production and transportation of anti-personnel land mines, reported SUNA. The four-day conference will be held in Nicaragua late in September.

18: The Bush administration was reported to have contacted Sudan and Cuba - both on the U.S. terrorist list - in search of cooperation over the recent terrorist attacks, said the US State Department. It was the highest-level communication in years between Washington and the two countries.

18: