January 2024
Mesahat Newsletter January 2024
In This Newsletter:
1. The Egyptian government is revising expenditure on hosting “guests” as anti-migration sentiment rises.
2. The Sudanese army gets new combat vehicles and equipment .. Two former members of the Sovereignty Council fail to enter Fasher.
3. “Rapid Support forces” participates in a workshop in Cairo on Darfur, and the Justice and Equality Movement announces its boycott due to the participation of “RSF” while the Sudanese army says that it did not receive an invitation to attend.
5. Latest humanitarian developments in Sudan (January 25, 2024).
6. The war in Sudan silences journalists and coverage.
7. El Geneina after months of war.
8. The Economic Court interprets a legal text to criminalize homosexuality.
9. Atyaf launches a campaign against so-called conversion therapy.
10.The Chamber of Pharmaceutical Industry addresses the government to release raw materials worth $150 million from ports.
The Egyptian government is revising expenditure on hosting “guests” as anti-migration sentiment rises
In the midst of reviewing its immigration policies, Egypt faces the complexities surrounding an an estimated 9 million “guests” in the country, the majority of whom are foreign migrants and not registered refugees.
While some on social media call for the expulsion of refugees, the reality is that the government does not allocate specific funds to accommodate the majority of these migrants, who bear the full costs of living in Egypt.
Stories like that of Rayan Farah, a Sudanese mother, highlight the challenges faced by migrants who lack formal refugee status and struggle to meet basic needs amid rising prices.
For some half a million registered refugees, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, provides varying degrees of support, but funding shortages impose restrictions, leaving individuals like Amir and Hasnaa to navigate an inconsistent landscape of aid to meet their basic needs.
A former UNHCR official said the agency tries to support the most vulnerable refugees in terms of health and education.
However, due to lack of funding, it is unable to provide support to all individuals in need.
That comes after the European Union announced last May that it would support Egypt with 20 Million euros for hosting Sudanese nationals, and against the backdrop of this meeting, the director of programs at the Egyptian Foundation for Refugee Support, Mohamed Farhat, told Mada Masr that the state does not bear any cost in exchange for receiving refugees because they bear the full cost of living in Egypt, including housing, water, electricity, gas, education, and health.
They even pay higher prices than Egyptians for some services, such as housing rent.
More details: https://bit.ly/3HTTF4o
The Sudanese army gets new combat vehicles and equipment .. Two former members of the Sovereignty Council fail to enter Fasher
The increase in combat equipment received by the army, and the continued arming of the warring forces in Sudan, prolongs the war and undermines repeated attempts to stop the war, as the war continues and violence continues in various parts of Sudan, citizens' lives are at risk of violations.
The Unit for Combating Violence against Women and Children revealed in its report that it had received documented reports indicating that at least two cases of sexual violence had occurred in Al-Jazira State after the Rapid Support Forces took control of it in mid-December.
The report indicated that there were other cases that the unit was unable to verify due to the deteriorating security situation, but it confirmed that there had been cases of threats of sexual violence and blackmail against citizens from members of the “Rapid Support” in various areas.
This situation also places people of sexual and gender diversity at greater risk in case they are identified by the various forces, as Sudanese law criminalizes homosexuality and punishes it with seven years in prison, and four years ago it was punishable by flogging, imprisonment, or even death.
More details: https://bit.ly/49pVr98
“Rapid Support forces” participates in a workshop in Cairo on Darfur, and the Justice and Equality Movement announces its boycott due to the participation of “RSF” while the Sudanese army says that it did not receive an invitation to attend
The Sudanese army announced that it had not received an invitation to participate in a workshop on the Darfur region in Cairo, sponsored by the French “Promediation” organization and with the support of the Egyptian and French Foreign Ministries.
The workshop aims to achieve a ceasefire in the capital, Fasher, and deliver humanitarian aid, while discussing the security and humanitarian situations in Darfur and in Sudan in general.
The Rapid Support Forces control four states in Darfur, and although some armed movements confirmed their participation in the workshop, the Justice and Equality Movement announced its boycott due to the Rapid Support’s participation.
This comes within the framework of efforts to achieve visions for ending the war throughout the country, with the Sudan Liberation Army and the Gathering of Sudan Liberation Forces emphasizing the need to return to a peaceful solution and avoid escalation.
More details: https://bit.ly/3unEFsB
Latest humanitarian developments in Sudan (January 25, 2024)
As of December 31, 2023, Sudan is facing its largest internal population displacement crisis in the world, hosting an estimated 9.05 million internally displaced people, constituting approximately 13% of the world's total internally displaced people, with nearly 1 in 8 globally displaced people being Sudanese.
Alarmingly, around 13,500 new individuals were displaced over the past week in Sudan, according to the International Organization for Migration's Displacement Tracking Report (IOM DTM).
Moreover, the alarming health situation continues, with nearly 10,000 suspected cases of cholera, including 275 associated deaths, reported as of 20 January 2024, in 60 locations in 11 states.
The delivery of humanitarian assistance also faces multiple challenges, such as security instability, looting, bureaucratic obstacles, poor communication and phone signal, cash shortages, and a lack of technical and humanitarian staff on the ground, affecting several regions of the country.
Adding to the pressure, it is worth noting that the Sudan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2024 Appeal is currently only 3.1% funded as of 25 January 2024.
More details: https://bit.ly/4bsQGxx
The war in Sudan silences journalists and coverage
Continuous threats against Sudanese journalists - whether in person or online - have led to their displacement internally or, often, abroad. According to Iman Fadl, press freedom officer at the Independent Sudanese Journalists Syndicate, most media houses have closed while journalists have gone into hiding – creating a vacuum in finding reliable information. Both warring parties have also flooded social media sites with lists that attribute journalists to one of the warring parties.
This led to the spread of hate speech against them from unknown parties, and the exchange of accusations between them on social media platforms.
All these obstacles and the media blackout make access to information about people of sexual and gender diversity in Sudan difficult and dangerous.
More details : https://bit.ly/3Sxs9ij
El Geneina after months of war
El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, was the center of the Rapid Support Forces' genocidal campaign.
It is estimated that about 10,000 to 15,000 people were killed, the majority of whom were from African tribes such as Masalit, who constitute the vast majority of the population.
According to the Ayin correspondent, after months of war, El Geneina appears almost deserted after thousands of its residents left for refugee camps in Chad.
The groups that decided to stay face restrictions from the Rapid Support Forces, which control the city, impose a curfew, and conduct outposts and inspection campaigns.
The groups explain their survival by their inability to support families in refugee camps in Chad, where there is not enough food.
All of this is a clear violation of the basic rights of the region's residents, and illustrates the harsh conditions that refugees suffer from in the refugee camps in Chad, such as the lack of basic necessities like food and treatment, and this affects Sudanese people of sexual and gender diversity, who were forced by the war to seek refuge in different countries and different refugee camps - with difficulty in accessing treatment and services related to sexual health.
More details: https://bit.ly/3HQnDq2
The Economic Court interprets a legal text to criminalize homosexuality
According to the Cairo 52 Center for Legal Studies, the recent rulings that the Center got through its program for pro bono legal representation, the Alexandria Economic Court, through multiple rulings, stated that Article 25 of the Cybercrime Law that stipulates (Any violation of social and family values shall be punished by imprisonment for a period of not less than 6 months and a fine of not less than 50,000 Egyptian pounds and not more than 100,000 Egyptian pounds) explicitly criminalizes homosexuality, according to the court’s interpretation.
This interpretation is a dangerous development in the criminalization of the identities of communities of sexual and gender diversities according to status, as the criminalization shifts from being a de facto criminalization using the Anti-Sex Work Law (10/1961) under the name of debauchery to being a legal criminalization according to the court’s interpretation, and since the transfer of jurisdiction over cases committed in the digital sphere to the Economic Court, the cases of individuals who were arrested by tracking their activities on dating apps or social media platforms were transferred to the Economic Courts, which initially relied on the interpretation of Article No. 9 of the Anti-Sex Work (10/1961) by describing the accusations as habitual immorality and incitement to it.
The shift then occurred in the Alexandria Economic Court’s use of Article 25 of the Cybercrime Law to criminalize and prosecute individuals of sexual and gender diversity.
More details: http://tinyurl.com/5fv837jn
Atyaf launches a campaign against so-called conversion therapy
Atyaf launched a campaign on its digital platforms against so-called conversion therapy, which is the name used to describe a group of practices claimed by its providers to treat homosexuality, which they call “sexual identity disorder.”
The campaign explains that these practices that are applied and promoted in Egypt are unscientific, unsound, and have serious psychological effects on the lives of the people subjected to them, as the campaign aims to raise awareness about these practices and their effects.
More details: https://atyaf.org / https://bit.ly/3SN9rED
The Chamber of Pharmaceutical Industry addresses the government to release raw materials worth $150 million from ports
The Chamber of Pharmaceutical Industry of the Federation of Egyptian Industries addressed the Council of Ministers to provide $150 million to release some of the raw materials held in ports, which manufacturers desperately need to cover the needs of the Egyptian market for medicine.
The medicine and medical tools sector is one of the sectors severely affected due to the import crisis resulting from the shortage of dollar supply in the Egyptian market, as customs release operations for large quantities of raw materials and finished products stuck in Egyptian ports were disrupted due to the importer’s inability to procure the hard currency needed to complete the import process due to the lack of dollars in banks and the high exchange rates on the black market.
This pharmaceutical crisis has led to a severe shortage in the availability of medicine in Egypt, including the medicine needed for people with chronic diseases such as diabetes.
This also severely affects trans individuals due to the lack of the hormonal drugs they need.
More details: https://bit.ly/3UxvsIO