{"id":42832,"date":"2020-06-03T10:24:05","date_gmt":"2020-06-03T10:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=42832"},"modified":"2020-06-03T10:24:05","modified_gmt":"2020-06-03T10:24:05","slug":"sudan-appoints-new-defense-chief-amid-tensions-with-ethiopia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=42832","title":{"rendered":"Sudan appoints new defense chief amid tensions with Ethiopia"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"72\">\n<p>\nCAIRO:\u00a0Sudan on Tuesday swore in a new defense minister more that two months after the death of the former defense chief and amid tensions with neighboring Ethiopia.<\/p>\n<p>\nMaj. Gen. Yassin Ibrahim Yassin was sworn in before Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the ruling sovereign council, according to a statement from the council. Yassin came out of retirement to take the position.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe ceremony was held in the capital Khartoum.<\/p>\n<p>\nPrime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and the country\u2019s Chief Judge Neamat Abdullah attended the ceremony, the statement said.<\/p>\n<p>\nYassin replaced Gen. Gamal Al-Din Omar, who died in March of a heart attack in neighboring South Sudan, while taking part in peace talks between his country\u2019s transitional government and rebel groups.<\/p>\n<p>\nYassin told reporters after the ceremony he would support Hamdok\u2019s government and work hard to \u201cachieve the goals &#8230; of the transitional period.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nBorn in 1958 in Khartoum, Yassin, a career army officer, studied at Sudan\u2019s military academy, and obtained a bachelor\u2019s degree in military science from Jordan\u2019s Mutah University. He retired in 2010, according Sudan\u2019s official SUNA news agency.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe swearing-in came amid tensions with neighboring Ethiopia over a cross-border attack allegedly conducted by a militia backed by Ethiopia\u2019s military.<\/p>\n<p>\nAt least one Sudanese army officer and one child were killed in an attack on Thursday by an Ethiopian militia group in Sudan\u2019s eastern Al-Qadarif province, according to Sudan\u2019s military. Another Sudanese officer and three civilians were wounded in the incident, according to the Sudanese statement.<\/p>\n<p>\nSudan is on a fragile path to democracy after a popular uprising led the military to overthrow former President Omar Bashir in April last year. A military-civilian government now leads the country to elections in less than three years.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe transitional administration faces towering challenges, including the dire economic conditions that fueled the protests late in 2018 that eventually led the military to remove Bashir. Sudan\u2019s economy has been battered by decades-long civil wars and international sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>\nAchieving peace with armed groups is crucial for the government as it would allow a reduction in military spending, which takes up to 80 percent of the budget, the prime minister has said.<\/p>\n<p>\nSudan has been convulsed by rebellions in its far-flung provinces for decades, and while a rebel alliance has joined the pro-democracy coalition, it said last month that it should be represented in the transitional government.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe August power-sharing deal has called for the government to reach a peace agreement with the rebels within 6 months. This deadline was not met and both sides agreed to extend the talks to reach a deal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CAIRO:\u00a0Sudan on Tuesday swore in a new defense minister more that two months after the death of the former defense chief and amid tensions with neighboring Ethiopia. Maj. Gen. Yassin Ibrahim Yassin was sworn in before Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the ruling sovereign council, according to a statement from the council. Yassin came out&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42832\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}