21st April 2013
Last week I spent a couple of days in Doha for the donors’ conference on Darfur. The conference provided an opportunity for the international community to gather with the Government of Sudan and the Darfur Regional Authority (DRA) to consider how to tackle the next stages of development in Darfur. There was a lot of […]
2nd April 2013
I visited Gedaref last weekend, mainly to witness the election for a new Governor. It wasn’t a formal observation mission (we’re not staffed for that). We did however support a Sudanese NGO which made a good job of systematic observation. For me it was more a question of getting a feel for how elections happen […]
Read more on Gedaref elections: a step on the way towards 2015 | Reply (3)
28th February 2013
Any Sudanese you talk to, whether in Government or on the streets, will tell you that the economy is one of the biggest problems facing the country: high inflation, especially in food items, big public deficit, no foreign currency, little investment. Of course even the strongest of economies would suffer after the kind of dislocation […]
6th February 2013
I had an interesting day last week. It began and ended with me handing out certificates to participants on courses the British Embassy had funded. The courses were for two very different Sudanese institutions. But they covered some common ground. The day began at the Higher Military Academy at the closing ceremony of a course […]
5th January 2013
2012 in Sudan seemed hectic pretty much up until the last minute. 2013 promises to be no less. So, like many others, I squeezed in a bit of holiday between the two. My son came to visit and we spent some time visiting the old, the new and the in-between in Sudan. The old were […]
12th December 2012
I spent the evening marking International Human Rights Day 2012 at an event at Afhad University for Women organised by SEEMA (a Sudanese women’s rights organisation) and supported by the British embassy. International Human Rights Day provides the opportunity for people to celebrate human rights and to advocate for the full enjoyment of those rights […]
2nd December 2012
I visited Port Sudan for a few days last week. A 10 hour car journey that began several hours before dawn finally drew to an end as we weaved through the Red Sea hills into a Port Sudan decked out in bunting for the opening of the 6th Red Sea Festival for Tourism and Marketing […]
14th November 2012
The following is a guest post by Deputy Ambassador to Sudan. One of the perks of stepping into the Ambassador’s shoes when he is away is that I occasionally get to represent the United Kingdom at some really uplifting events. Last Friday was a case in point. The Palace Museum had agreed to host an […]
25th October 2012
Last week I visited El Fasher with my Ambassadorial colleagues from the European Union. It was my second visit to Darfur since I arrived in Sudan nearly three months ago: I visited Nyala a few weeks ago in the same period staff from this embassy visited all of the 5 state capitals. Why the focus […]
30th September 2012
I was promised (or warned?) that a posting to Sudan would not be dull. And so it has proved so far. My first full month here has been a mix of traditional diplomacy, concern for the security of the embassy and my staff, and investment in the future of Sudan. Diplomacy The “high diplomacy” has […]