Sudan : Al-Burhan stresses that elections will be held at the end of the transitional period

Sudan 31 bodies recovered from a collapsed gold mine

Rescue workers have recovered at least 31 bodies from a collapsed gold mine in Sudan's West Kordofan state.

Sudanese authorities announced Wednesday that rescue workers have recovered at least 31 bodies from a collapsed gold mine in West Kordofan state.

The state-run mining company said that workers and residents of the surrounding villages were still searching for more bodies or survivors at the Um Drisaya mine, which is located in the village of Foga, about 700 km south of the capital, Khartoum.

The stricken mine collapsed earlier this week, killing at least 38 people, the company said on Tuesday. Pictures posted on Facebook showed villagers gathering at the site and at least two excavators working to find survivors or bodies.

The Sudanese Mineral Resources Company Ltd. stated that the mine was closed and halted, but that local miners returned to work after the security forces guarding the site left the area.

And collapses are common in gold mines in Sudan, where safety standards are largely not observed.

Sudan is a major producer of gold and mines are spread across the country, but the industry suffers from mismanagement and corruption.

The transitional government began regulating the industry during the past two years.

In neighboring North Darfur state, an unidentified group of armed men on Tuesday evening attacked and looted a World Food Program warehouse in El Fasher, the state's administrative capital, according to Kher Diata Lou Ndiaye, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Sudan.

In the warehouse was about 1,900 cubic tons of food, which was to be distributed to those in need in the area, according to the World Food Program.

“Such an attack severely hampers our ability to reach those most in need,” Le Ndiaye added.

Sudan is one of the poorest countries in the world, with more than 14.3 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, according to United Nations statistics.

The attack on the WFP warehouse followed a similar attack on a former peacekeeping mission base in El Fasher last week. The base, which was handed over to the Sudanese authorities on December 21, was also looted.

A new financial law in Tunisia Will Said solve the economic crisis at the expense of the citizen?

After difficult labors, the Tunisian government recently announced the new Finance Law for the year 2022, amid strong criticism and widespread popular discontent, which was considered as overburdening the citizen with more burdens, in light of bad economic and social conditions.

As a result of political instability, the last of which was the announcement by Tunisian President Kais Saied on 25 July last, of a set of exceptional measures, according to which he dissolved the government, relieved its president of his position, and froze the work of Parliament, the Tunisian economy witnessed one of its worst and darkest years, as Tunisia entered international isolation at the level of international institutions and donor countries, and the value of the fiscal deficit worsened.

After Kais Saied made many promises to the Tunisian people to find a solution to the unprecedented economic crisis that is encircling the country and tightening the screws on the citizens, he really had to come up with new solutions and procedures.

Governmental committees were entrusted with the task of preparing the 2022 Finance Law, which was subsequently submitted for approval by a Cabinet on December 23, 2021, under the supervision of the Head of State.

Said said during a cabinet meeting at the time that "the preparation of the Finance Law was carried out within the framework of the state's keenness to send positive messages to various economic actors at home, Tunisia's partners and donor parties abroad," and acknowledged that the 2022 Finance Law contains "compulsions."

It seems that among these constraints, which Saeed alluded to, are a set of fiscal measures and other provisions contained in the law, which aroused widespread popular resentment.

Features of the new budget law

After a long wait, the new Finance Law of 2022 came to light, but instead of providing solutions to get out of the economic and social crisis, it carried in its provisions more burdens and procedures, which specialists assessed as an indirect direction from the Tunisian government to bridge the country's economic deficit on Citizen account.

And according to what Finance Minister Siham Al-Boughdiri said during a press conference held by the Tunisian government on Tuesday, December 28, to announce the features of the new finance law for 2022, "the expenditures of the Tunisian state budget for the year 2022 are estimated at 47.166 billion dinars (16.428 billion dollars)," Against the state budget income of 38.618 billion dinars ($13.446 billion), i.e. a budget deficit of about 8.584 billion dinars ($3 billion).

The government committees prepared for the Finance Law decided to cover the budget’s income by relying mainly on fiscal resources at a rate of approximately 91%, in a move that Al-Boughdiri considered following Saeed’s statements as a set of “compulsions” imposed on them and dictated by the conditions of the economic crisis in the country.

Among the fiscal measures stipulated by law:

A 10% tax deduction on amounts deposited in banks or by mail for natural persons.

- An increase in the Golan tariff on tourist cars.

- Increasing the royalty subsidy employed on amusement parks and refreshment stores.

Raising the customs duties employed on consumer products or those of a locally made equivalent.

- A deduction of 5% on each amount exceeding 3,000 dinars paid in cash with accountants.

Introducing a tax stamp on sales tickets delivered from commercial stores.

And other items and measures that angered the Tunisian street, and exacerbated its fears of further drowning in the economic and social crisis, in which its interest was placed on the sidelines of the accounts of all governmental and political parties, according to activists.

Popular discontent and political criticism

Reactions and criticisms of the new 2022 Finance Act have ranged from anger to resentment. Some experts and analysts stressed that what was mentioned in the Finance Law is a clear indication of the country's failure to lure the International Monetary Fund to sit at the negotiating table again.

Commenting on the new measures, the former Minister of Health and former leader of the Ennahda party, Abdellatif El Makki, wrote on his official Facebook page: “Impossible! In such circumstances: Is the internal market able to provide 7600 billion? Are we able to mobilize more than 1200 billion in currency?” foreign?”

He added, "It is a deception for the people to suggest that things are going on normally to gain time to lock down the country. This is an example of the extent of the fallacies in this budget. The lack of resources means that the state stops paying, all of this without supervision."

While the head of Al-Majd Party Abdel-Wahab Al-Hani wrote : “The Prime Minister and Prime Minister of the Government of Exceptional Measures hides from confronting public opinion with (the President’s Finance Decree and the President’s Budget Decree), her unpopular measures, her generous tax gifts to plunderers of public money, and her identification with the interests of rentier families, at the expense of the popular classes. non-existent, limited and middle-income, leaving the ministers of exceptional measures to face the media in the first "press seminar" in more than 5 months, with direct broadcasting prohibited by an exceptional decision from the Prime Minister of the Government of Exceptional Measures, in implementation of exceptional decisions from the President's Office, so that the symposium is transmitted questions and answers on carrier pigeon phones The stretcher, the voice of a minister does not rise above the sound of the daily battles of the windmills of the President of the Republic... Hazalt!

For his part, Osama Al-Khelaifi, MP from Qalb Tounes, said in a Facebook post : "Approving increases is similar to (slaughter) and people applaud and even the minister's justifications are accepted as (honey), so the happiness that Saeed is talking about lies in decrees and tyranny?".

Sudan : Al-Burhan stresses that elections will be held at the end of the transitional period, and the Umma Party delivers its vision to resolve the crisis

A Sudanese political source said that the head of the Sovereign Council, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, stressed during his meeting with Sudanese political forces their adherence to holding free and fair elections at the end of the transitional period.

Al-Burhan revealed - for the first time - during his meeting with the political forces that Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok formally informed them of his intention to resign if there was no consensus between the political forces.

In the context, the Sudanese National Umma Party handed yesterday, Wednesday, the Chairman of the Sovereign Council, a copy of a road map to "restore legitimacy and complete the tasks of the transitional phase" in the country, stressing its quest to gather the national ranks.

This came during a meeting between Al-Burhan and a delegation from the party - the largest components of the former ruling coalition in the country - led by its designated president, Fadlallah Barama Nasser.

The party explained, in a statement, that the meeting dealt with the national issue and how to achieve democratic transformation and civil rule through national consensus.

The statement stressed that the party seeks to gather the national ranks in a round table that includes all political and societal forces, and the resistance committees, to agree on a unified vision to resume legitimacy, complete the tasks of the transitional phase, and then meet with Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok.

Earlier on Wednesday, Anadolu Agency quoted a source in the Umma Party as saying that the party leadership had met with Al-Burhan; To discuss the situation in the country, at the invitation of the latter, after the party announced a road map to solve the Sudan crisis.

The head of the Umma Party's Political Bureau, Muhammad al-Mahdi Hassan, told Al-Jazeera that Al-Burhan announced the formation of a committee to study the road map prepared by the National Umma Party to respond to it.

Sudan has witnessed, since last October 25, protests in rejection of measures taken by Al-Burhan on the same day, which included declaring a state of emergency, dissolving the Sovereignty Councils and Transitional Ministers, and dismissing Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok, after the arrest of party leaders and officials, within measures described by political forces as a “military coup.” ".

On November 21, Al-Burhan and Hamdok signed a political agreement that includes the latter's return to his position, the formation of a government of competencies, the release of political detainees, and the two parties pledged to work together to complete the democratic path.