3rd September 2013
I returned from an extended Eid holiday last week. We stayed in Khartoum for the first day of Eid, sharing in Sudanese culture marking the end of Ramadan. After that we left for two weeks holiday in Europe, where I had the opportunity to re-immerse in my own culture. Cultures are important. They are the […]
29th July 2013
Traditionally the embassy hosts a large Iftar for our Sudanese friends and partners. This year we are doing things a little differently. I am hosting half a dozen smaller Iftars to which we have invited 20 or 30 guests only. I am enjoying these Iftars greatly. They are special events. It is clear that for […]
24th June 2013
Last week I had the honour of being invited to speak to a distinguished group of Sudanese ambassadors, academics, journalists and members of civil society at the Future Studies Centre. I spoke about what I always speak about: The UK-Sudan relationship, what the British embassy does here, and what we try to achieve. It’s often […]
17th June 2013
On the 12 of June we celebrated the birthday of Her Majesty the Queen with a big party. As is customary on these occasions, I made a speech which concentrated on the UK’s relationship with Sudan and our role here. Here are some of things I said: “The historical ties between the UK and Sudan […]
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29th April 2013
One of the pleasure as well as duties of an Ambassador is to visit as much as possible of the country to which he is posted. How else can you get a sense of the size, diversity and make-up of a country? You can’t really understand a country and its people by just sitting in […]
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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 […]
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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 […]