Category: African News

Residents of Sudan’s capital again awoke to heavy clashes Sunday morning just hours after rival generals agreed to an upcoming one-week ceasefire amid ongoing talks in Saudi Arabia.

The ceasefire — the latest following many successive truces that have been systematically violated — is set to go into effect at 9:45 pm (1945 GMT) on Monday, the US and Saudi Arabia said in a joint statement.

The ceasefire “shall remain in effect for seven days and may be extended with the agreement of both parties”, the statement added after talks in Jeddah.

Multiple truces have been violated since fighting broke out five weeks ago, which the Saudi foreign ministry acknowledged in a statement published by the official Saudi Press Agency early Sunday.

“Unlike previous ceasefires, the Agreement reached in Jeddah was signed by the parties and will be supported by a US-Saudi and international-supported ceasefire monitoring mechanism,” it said.

But Khartoum residents — who for weeks have been sheltering from brutal urban warfare amid desperately low supplies of food and vital resources — were sceptical that this time would be any different.

“They have announced truces that they have not held to before,” said Hussein Mohammed, who remains in Khartoum North, sheltering in place with his sick mother even as their neighbourhood became deserted.

“We hope that this time mediators can monitor that the ceasefire is implemented,” he told AFP, adding that his mother has been unable to make her regular doctor’s appointments since before the conflict erupted on April 15.

The fighting pits the Sudanese army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by Burhan’s former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

Around 1,000 people have been killed and over a million displaced throughout the weeks of intense fighting, leaving millions more with sporadic access to water, electricity or medicine.

Former allies

Along with the capital, the war-scarred western region of Darfur has seen some the worst of the fighting.

“We do not trust the warring sides,” said Adam Issa, a shop owner in El-Geneina, West Darfur. “Every time they announce a truce and they go back to fighting. We want a permanent ceasefire, not a temporary truce.”

The region is still reeling from a conflict that erupted in 2003 when former autocrat Omar al-Bashir unleashed the feared Janjaweed militia — which formed the basis for the RSF — to crush a rebellion by ethnic minority groups.

In October 2021, the warring generals collaborated to oust a civilian government, derailing a transition to democracy following Bashir’s ouster in 2019.

They installed a ruling Sovereign Council with Burhan at its head and Daglo as his deputy, but their marriage of convenience later disintegrated, and their power struggle came to blows.

Burhan officially sacked Daglo from his position on Friday, giving his title of vice president of the council to former rebel leader Malik Agar.

In a statement Saturday, Agar said he was determined to try to “end the war” and press for negotiations.

He also directly addressed Daglo — whose most recent bone of contention with Burhan was over the RSF’s integration into the regular army — saying “Sudan’s stability can only be re-established by a professional and unified army”.

Burhan and Daglo have not spoken since the war broke out, instead hurling accusations at each other through the media.

Burhan calls the RSF a “rebel militia”, claiming foreign “mercenaries” are pouring in to support Daglo, who in turn says Burhan is a “criminal” intent on reinstating the military-Islamist regime of Bashir.

Urgent need

In Khartoum, doctors have repeatedly condemned bombardments on hospitals which have come under attack by both the air force’s fighter jets and the RSF’s artillery.

Residents of densely-populated neighbourhoods have accused RSF fighters of widespread break-ins and looting, with many families returning to their homes only to find them occupied by paramilitary fighters.

Civilians and aid agencies have for weeks pleaded for both sides to secure humanitarian corridors to let in urgently needed assistance.

With most banks shuttered, access to food is becoming increasingly difficult amid crippling fuel shortages.

Warehouses and food factories have been looted, attacked and burned, raising alarm bells in what was already one of the world’s poorest countries.

Currently, 25 million people — more than half of the population — need humanitarian aid, the highest number the United Nations has ever recorded in the country.

A prolonged conflict — which analysts warn is likely — will cause millions more to become food insecure and push a million people to flee into neighbouring countries, according to the UN.

The UN’s special envoy to Sudan, Volker Perthes, on Saturday flew to New York, where he is due to brief the Security Council on Monday.

AFP

A month ago, Mohsen Abdelrahman owned a small but profitable jewellery store in Khartoum. Now, he has nothing to his name but a broken lock and a hollowed-out shopfront.

Ten days after battles broke out between two rival Sudanese generals, he received a call from the shopkeeper next door to his business saying it had been looted.

Despite the danger, Abdelrahman braved the relentless gunfire and air strikes ravaging the capital to get to his store on the other side of town, only to have his worst fears confirmed.

“Everything I owned was gone,” he told AFP, adding that now he just wants “this war to end, so I can start over.”

There is no end in sight to the conflict pitting the forces of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against those of his deputy-turned-foe Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

But even before the fighting broke out, Sudan was one of the world’s poorest countries, brought to its knees by decades of international sanctions under former dictator Omar al-Bashir, as well as rampant corruption and the 2011 independence of South Sudan which held almost all the country’s oil.

After a brief respite following Bashir’s ouster, a 2021 coup led by Burhan and Daglo saw the international community cut $2 billion of annual aid to the country, slashing 40 percent of its budget.

The economy has been in free fall since, with the government never announcing a 2023 budget but instead boasting that dizzying inflation had recently fallen under 100 percent.

– Broken locks –

Prior to the ongoing conflict, Khartoum saw signs of economic renewal, with international restaurants and supermarkets stocked with organic food and American goods — although much of it was smuggled through the Sahel.

But nowadays Khartoum, which is home to five million people, is a city whose shattered windows, gutted shopfronts, pockmarked cars and empty shelves bear witness to the rampant violence and looting.

Khartoum airport, now a shell of its former self, has been shut down since the fighting began on April 15.

Sudan once depended on vital trade coming through Port Sudan on the Red Sea, where now only planes and ships full of fleeing civilians take off, and crucial humanitarian aid trickles in.

Nothing has been spared from the looting, including hospitals, humanitarian organisations, and the abandoned houses of more than 500,000 people who fled the capital for neighbouring towns, or other countries.

Noureddine Adam’s mobile phone store was no exception. On the fifth day of the conflict, a lock was broken and his shop was ransacked.

“They didn’t leave anything, and now I have nothing left,” he told AFP.

In addition to having lost their inventory, shop owners and traders like Adam are now saddled with debt, he said.

– Empty silos –

According to a customs official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, the Soba container terminal south of Khartoum — where imports are processed before coming into the capital and other areas — has been stripped bare.

“It was all products from abroad that had come in and were waiting to be processed, but their importers couldn’t come and finish the paperwork because of the war,” he said.

According to witnesses in Khartoum North, wheat silos at Sayga, Sudan’s largest producer of flour, have been emptied out — a potential disaster for a country where the UN predicts 19 million people could be food insecure within six months.

Khartoum residents have tried to hold out hope, even while sheltering under air strikes and seeing their fleeing neighbours’ homes broken into and ransacked.

But Abdeldayem Omar knows his clothing store is gone for good.

“On the third day of the war, a rocket fell on the market,” he told AFP.

“Some stalls burned to the ground, including mine. Others partially survived the flames, but whatever was left was looted.”

The irony, according to him, is that “the main police station in the district is headquartered inside the market itself.”

“But the police have completely disappeared, and there’s no protection left.”

AFP

Persistent fighting between Sudan’s rival generals undermined efforts to firm up a truce Wednesday, as a senior UN official arrived for talks on providing relief to millions of trapped civilians.

The visit by top UN humanitarian official Martin Griffiths comes one day after neighbouring South Sudan announced that the warring sides had agreed “in principle” to a seven-day ceasefire.

Deadly violence broke out on April 15 between Sudan’s de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who commands the regular army, and his deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

At least 550 people have been killed and 4,926 wounded, according to the latest health ministry figures Wednesday, which are likely to be incomplete.

Tens of thousands of Sudanese have fled to neighbouring countries in an exodus that has sparked warnings of a humanitarian “catastrophe” with implications for the entire region.

On Wednesday, Griffiths arrived in Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast on an urgent mission to find ways to bring relief to the millions of Sudanese who are unable to flee.

“Just arrived in Port Sudan to reaffirm the UN’s commitment to the Sudanese people,” he said on Twitter.

Earlier, the foreign ministry of neighbouring South Sudan announced that Burhan and Daglo “have agreed in principle for a seven-day truce from May 4th to 11th”.

The two sides have yet to formally confirm the new ceasefire.

The two men have agreed multiple truces since the fighting began but none has effectively taken hold. The current truce was extended on Sunday by a further 72 hours and is due to expire on Wednesday at 2200 GMT.

Mounting condemnation

Despite the truce efforts, witnesses reported warplanes over north Khartoum on Wednesday and fierce clashes near the state broadcaster’s headquarters in the capital’s twin city of Omdurman.

“We heard again loud gunfire and anti-aircraft firing at a fighter jet this morning,” a resident of south Khartoum said.

Multiple hospitals have been hit, humanitarian facilities looted and foreign aid groups forced to suspend most of their operations.

Saudi Arabia said the premises of its cultural centre in Khartoum were attacked on Tuesday “by an armed group which damaged equipment, cameras and seized some of the mission’s property”.

The kingdom condemned the raid, calling for de-escalation and an end to the violence.

Video posted by the RSF showed damage inside the premises of the presidential palace in Khartoum.

More than 430,000 civilians have fled their homes, the United Nations said, including 100,000 who have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.

Only 16 percent of Khartoum’s hospitals remain fully functional, the UN added.

The failure of the warring generals to abide by their commitments in efforts to end nearly three weeks of fighting has drawn mounting international criticism.

“The two generals, even though they accept the ceasefire, at the same time they continue fighting and shelling the city,” complained Ismail Wais of East African regional bloc IGAD.

He said the persistent fighting “compounds and complicates the political, security and humanitarian situation on the ground making it harder to resolve.”

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned on Tuesday that the fighting in neighbouring Sudan was affecting “the entire region”.

Griffiths had earlier called for civilians and aid workers to be protected.

“Ensure safe passage for civilians fleeing areas of hostilities. Respect humanitarian workers and assets,” he said on Twitter.

Violence has also engulfed the Darfur region, with at least 99 people killed in fighting, according to Sudan’s doctors union.

Of the more than 330,000 people displaced inside Sudan, over 70 percent were reported to be from West and South Darfur states, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Darfur is still scarred by a war that erupted in 2003 when then-strongman Omar al-Bashir unleashed the Janjaweed militia, mainly recruited from Arab pastoralist tribes, against ethnic minority rebels.

AFP

Fighting raged in Sudan on Friday, despite rival forces agreeing to extend a truce aimed to stem nearly two weeks of warfare that has killed hundreds and caused widespread destruction.

In the capital Khartoum, where foreign nations are scrambling to organise mass evacuations of their citizens, Turkey’s defence ministry said a military transport aircraft came under fire.

Witnesses reported mass looting as gunmen fired rockets in bitter urban battles in the western Darfur region.

There have been multiple truce efforts since fighting broke out on April 15 between Sudan’s army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commanded by his former deputy and fellow coup leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. All have failed.

On Thursday, the two sides agreed to extend a repeatedly broken ceasefire for three more days.

The United States, Saudi Arabia, as well as the African Union, the United Nations and others, welcomed the rival generals’ “readiness to engage in dialogue” in a bid to create a “more durable cessation of hostilities and ensure unimpeded humanitarian access”.

Since a power struggle between Burhan and Daglo erupted into violence, fighter jets have pounded RSF positions with air strikes in densely packed districts of Khartoum, as fighters on the ground exchanged volleys of artillery and heavy machine gun fire.

In some parts of the city of some five million people, trenches have been dug as gunmen battle each other street by street.

At least 512 people have been killed and 4,193 wounded in the fighting, according to health ministry figures, although the real death toll is likely much higher.

Fighting has also spread across Sudan, especially in Darfur, where witnesses reported intense conflict.

The Darfur Bar Association, a civil society group, said fighters were “launching rockets at houses” in El Geneina, the state capital of West Darfur, as well as reporting firing from “rifles, machine guns and anti-aircraft weapons”.

Fighting has spread “nearly all over the city” and fighters have “looted camps for the displaced and the university hospital” as well as setting fire to “markets, public buildings, aid warehouses and banks”, the Bar Association added.

It urged Burhan and Daglo to “immediately stop this foolish war that is being waged on the backs of civilians across Sudan”.

The doctors’ union said “dozens” have been killed or wounded in El Geneina, where the UN has said it has reports of the “distribution of weapons among local communities”.

In El Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur, medics are struggling to cope with the influx of wounded people.

“The situation is very, very difficult here,” said Mohamed Gibreel, project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in El Fasher, adding that the hospital there had received 410 wounded patients.

“There is no water, there is also no electricity,” Gibreel said in a video posted by MSF on Friday, which showed patients in the corridor of the crowded hospital. “It has impacted all life-saving services.”

The World Food Programme has said the violence could plunge millions more into hunger in a country where 15 million people — one-third of the population — need aid to stave off famine.

At least five aid workers have been killed and swathes of aid operations suspended — putting the lives of 50,000 acutely malnourished children “at real risk”, the UN has warned.

Darfur is still reeling from the devastating war that raged in the 2000s when then-hardline president Omar al-Bashir crushed ethnic-minority rebels by creating the Janjaweed militia to carry out atrocities, a force that later formed the basis of Daglo’s RSF.

That conflict left at least 300,000 people killed and close to 2.5 million displaced, according to UN figures, and saw Bashir charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide by the International Criminal Court.

Burhan and Daglo — commonly known as Hemeti — seized power in a 2021 coup that derailed Sudan’s transition to democracy, established after Bashir was ousted following mass protests in 2019.

But the two generals later fell out, most recently over the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army.

Residents of Khartoum have meanwhile been shuttered at home, running dangerously low on food, cash and fuel needed to get out, with only intermittent power and internet.

Tens of thousands have already fled to neighbouring countries including Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan.

The UN warns the fighting could result in up to 270,000 people fleeing.

AFP

Britain on Tuesday began evacuating its citizens from Sudan, after criticism of a delay in getting its passport holders out of the restive country.

“The first flight has left and you can expect that there will be at least two more flights overnight tonight,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s official spokesman told reporters.

Britain only announced that it had launched a large-scale evacuation on Tuesday morning, lagging other countries and 10 days since fierce urban fighting erupted, leading to hundreds of deaths.

It came after a US-brokered 72-hour ceasefire between Sudan’s warring generals officially took effect.

London has faced pressure to act after unfavourable comparisons to the chaotic evacuation of Britons when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021.

British nationals trapped in Sudan on Monday said they felt “abandoned” by the UK authorities, while the furious relatives of one 80-year-old man said their father had turned down two opportunities to leave in a convoy with family members because he thought Britain would evacuate him, only for the flight to leave without him.

Sunak’s spokesman said that the German military was running the evacuation site at the Wadi Seidna airfield but Britain had “the capacity to take over” if necessary.

Germany’s foreign and defence ministries said earlier on Tuesday that the country planned to operate its final evacuation flight on Tuesday evening.

Downing Street said British forces were prepared to defend the airfield but would strive to avoid “active engagement” with other forces.

“It’s worth emphasising that international evacuations have been taking place since Sunday and we haven’t seen any significant issues… or large crowds appearing,” Sunak’s spokesman added.

Britain carried out a military operation Sunday to withdraw its diplomats as deadly battles raged in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

But citing the dangers on the ground, it had held off on extracting its citizens more widely despite Western allies evacuating hundreds of their own passport holders.

The government says that some 4,000 Britons with dual nationality and 400 with UK-only passports are in Sudan, while 2,000 people have registered with the foreign ministry seeking help to get out.

The flights were prioritising the vulnerable, elderly and children, taking them on military planes from the airfield north of Khartoum.

Britons were urged only to come to the airfield if contacted.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said 120 British forces were involved, and a contingent of Royal Marines were in Port Sudan to “establish the safety of the area and any options”.

That would allow for an increase in support if necessary, he added, raising the possibility of a seaborne evacuation via the Red Sea.

A Royal Navy frigate, HMS Lancaster, and a support ship, RFA Cardigan Bay, have both been sent to the region, said Wallace.

All UK passport holders are eligible for the flights as well as their partners, children and parents but only if those relatives have an existing right of entry to Britain, the Foreign Office said.

Pressed on other options such as Royal Navy warships, Sunak’s spokesman said earlier: “We are looking at every possible option to ensure those who want to leave are able to do so.”

AFP

The fighting that has erupted in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country is a direct result of a vicious power struggle within the country’s military leadership. The clashes are between the regular army and a paramilitary force called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Sudan is in North-East Africa and is one of the largest countries on the continent, covering 1.9 million square kilometres. It is also one of the poorest countries in the world, with its 46 million people living on an average annual income of $750 (£606) a head. The population of Sudan is predominantly Muslim and the country’s official languages are Arabic and English.

Who is fighting who in Sudan?

Why has fighting in Sudan started now?

It is not exactly clear where the RSF bases are, but it seems that their fighters have moved into densely populated areas. The Sudanese air force has mounted air strikes in the capital, a city of more than six million people, which is likely to have led to civilian casualties.

There was a brief pause in the fighting on Sunday, agreed by both sides, to allow people to escape the fighting.

What are the Rapid Support Forces?

Why is the military in charge of Sudan?

A joint military-civilian government was then established but that was overthrown in another coup in October 2021, when Gen Burham took over. And since then the rivalry between he and Gen Dagalo has intensified. A framework deal to put power back in the hands of civilians was agreed last December but talks to finalise the details have failed.

What do the two sides want?

What are other countries doing?

French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated, Thursday, March 2, 2023, that France harboured no desire to return to past policies of interfering in Africa after he began a four-nation tour of the continent.

“The age of Francafrique is well over,” Macron said in remarks to the French community in Gabon, referring to France’s post-colonisation strategy of supporting authoritarian leaders to defend its interests.

Macron is visiting four central African countries at a time when France finds itself facing a wave of hostility among troubled former colonies in the Sahel, forcing it to withdraw its troops.

Ahead of his visit, Macron on Monday gave some details of the redeployment of French forces, after their departure from Mali and the Central African Republic in 2022 and from Burkina Faso last month.

He said there would be a “noticeable reduction” in the French troop presence in Africa “in the coming months” and a greater focus on training and equipping allied countries’ forces.

In his remarks in Libreville, Macron insisted that the reorganisation was “neither a withdrawal nor disengagement but adapting an arrangement” with allies.

Macron arrived late Wednesday in Gabon, a close French supporter, for a conference on preserving tropical forests — an initiative that he and Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba unveiled at last year’s UN climate conference.

After attending the summit section of the conference on Thursday, he heads to Angola before flying on Friday to the Republic of Congo and neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

(Channels TV)

Burkina Faso’s army announced on Sunday that operations by the French army in the jihadist-hit West African state were officially over.

Senior officers from Burkina Faso and France’s forces in the country held a flag-lowering ceremony to mark the official end of French operations, at a camp on the outskirts of the capital Ouagadougou on Saturday, Burkina’s army said in a statement.

Bloody Conflict

A landlocked country in the heart of West Africa’s Sahel, Burkina Faso is one of the world’s most volatile and impoverished countries.

It has been struggling with a jihadist insurgency that swept in from neighbouring Mali in 2015.

Thousands of civilians, troops and police have been killed, more than two million people have fled their homes, and around 40 percent of the country lies outside the government’s control.

Anger within the military at the mounting toll sparked two coups in 2022, the most recent of which was in September, when 34-year-old Traore seized power.

He is standing by a pledge made by the preceding junta to stage elections for a civilian government by 2024.

After the ruling junta in Mali forced French troops out last year, the army officers running neighbouring Burkina Faso followed suit, asking Paris to empty its garrison.

Under President Emmanuel Macron, France was already drawing down its troops across the Sahel region, which just a few years ago numbered more than 5,000, backed up with fighter jets, helicopters and infantry fighting vehicles.

About 3,000 remain, but the forced departures from Mali and Burkina Faso — as well as the Central African Republic to the south last year — underline how anti-French winds are gathering force.

(Channels TV)

The governorship running mate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Enugu State, Barr. Ifeanyi Ossai has recapitulated their administration’s commitment to fight insecurity through the deployment of modern technology, job creation, massive infrastructure, engagement of youths and provisions of social services across the state if and when elected in the forthcoming elections.

Barr. Ossai, who gave this assurance on Tuesday at Okpuje, Okutu, Anuka, Ibagwa-Ani, Ibagwa-Agu, Okpaligbo and Utobolo political wards in Nsukka Local Government Area, during the wards’ meetings where he interfaced with the stakeholders of the different communities in the area, disclosed that they had put in place all the necessary processes for the exponential growth the state will witness.

The governorship running mate maintained that security is at the fundamental of their governance and strategic policy that will make the state covetous and alluring to private investors.

According to him, modern technology, intelligence gathering, strengthening of community policing, and engagement of youths in productive enterprises will eradicate insecurity across the state, saying that Dr. Peter Mbah, the party’s gubernatorial flagbearer, would leave no stone unturned in harnessing the abundant mineral and material resources in the area which will create more wealth for the people and eradicate poverty away.

While reacting to the demands of the people from the various wards, Ossai said infrastructural development such as road construction that will link communities in the state, functional primary and secondary health care facilities, skills acquisition and vocational training centres, total overhaul of the education curricula are all important to their administration’s development agenda as contained in Mbah’s manifesto and social contract.

He further stated that the state, under Dr. Mbah’s leadership, will witness unprecedented development that will attract workforce from other states, adding that Dr. Mbah has restated his commitment that he would grow the economy of Enugu State seven-fold, open up rural areas for industrialisation while creating agro-allied processing zones that will make the state the food basket of the nation which will be a huge benefit to the people.

“Our industrialisation policy will discourage our youths from migrating outside the country in search of greener pastures and also minimize crimes because they will constructively and productively engage them in agriculture and other social services that will create wealth for them.

“Agriculture is going to be a profitable business because we’re going to invest massively in the sector such that we will be producing, processing, packaging, marketing, exporting and creating more value chain in the process,” he noted.

Speaking earlier, chairmen of the various wards, and Presidents-general of the communities, Hon. Steve Ezema, Hon Chukwunonso Ugwu, Hon. Sebastine Ejiofor Ezema; chairman of the council area, Hon. Walter Ozioko, member representing the people of Nsukka East at the State House of Assembly, Hon. Chinedu Nwamba , and candidate for Nsukka/Igboeze South Federal Constituency, Engr. Vita Abba, hailed Dr. Mbah and his running mate for engaging on the impactful ward and community tour meetings initiated to reach out to people in the grassroots, promising and assuring that they will work tirelessly with the people from the various communities to vote for all the PDP candidates in the zone and beyond.

On their part, the former Secretary to Enugu State Government, Dr. Dan Shere, the member representing Nsukka West Constituency at the State House of Assembly, Hon. Ugwuwerua Emma, and the chairman of PDP in Nsukka Local Government, Hon. Febian Onah, assured the representative of the gubernatorial flagbearer, Barr. Ossai that the people in the communities had already concluded to deliver massive votes for all the PDP candidates, while thanking them for coming out en masse and further stated that they should continue to believe in the party and also endeavour to collect their voter’s cards in order to exercise their franchise during the election period.

The Director General, Nsukka Women for Gbrugburu, Mrs Juliana Ugwu who spoke on behalf of the women expressed confidence that her people will witness more infrastructural development under the next administration, adding that Mbah’s proposed 10,000 kilometers of roads had brought hope for her people and women in particular who are majorly farmers. She assured that the women are with all the PDP candidates across board.

Engr. Abba, and Hon. Agbo appreciated the uncommon personality of the business mogul and the consolidation of the intellectual support that Barr. Ossia will provide to Dr. Mbah when they assume office in May 2023. They further enjoined the communities disregard deceivers from other political parties who will come in form of “emergency activism” and assured them of total legislative support if elected.

A notable stakeholder from the community, Dr. Sam Ugwu disclosed that the community had met and agreed to vote for all the PDP candidates across the zone, including the governorship candidate because PDP has not lost in the area since 1998.

Restating the total collapse and presence of opposition parties in the area, the deputy gubernatorial candidate, stated that PDP would sweep the entire wards in the communities leaving less than two percent votes for the oppositions who are now “labour confusionists” and deceivers.