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Sudan

Sudan National Early Warning and Response Mechanism (CEWARU) Report covering the period Aug 2008 - Sep 2009

Attachments

Summary

This report covers the period from August 2008 - Sept. 2009. It includes the activities achieved by the steering committee, the head of CEWARU, visits of officials from the Headquarters (CEWARN and a brief note about the conflict southern Sudan.)

Introduction

The National Early Warning and response mechanism in Sudan was established after the declaration of the early warning and response mechanism CEWARN of the IGAD countries. Since then it has been active in attending the different activities run by the CEWARN. The Head of CEWARU, the country coordinator and members of the steering committee were all involved in these activities which were held in Sudan or in the different IGAD member states.

Important events during the year

04/05/2009, the cattle branding workshop was held in the Boulevard Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, the head of CEWARU attended this workshop. The importance of this workshop lies on the fact that the IGAD member states depend mostly on the agro pastoral system of economy. Sudan itself has almost 150 million heads of lives 80% of this livestock is under nomadic system. Cattle comprises about 50 million heads .. so branding, although its practiced traditionally, is very essential and it needs to be modernized given the fact that cattle is an important trade item within the IGAD and outside the IGAD region.

The visit of the expert on cattle branding to Sudan was very successful, as he met all the stakeholder related to cattle branding, they all appreciated the role of IGAD in this issue and recommended the use of modern techniques in branding, improving the traditional systems and the technical and financial support from IGAD to Sudan.

On 04/04/2009 the cross boarder meeting was held in Awasa, in Ethiopia. Members from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Sudan were attending that meeting Tribal leaders and community leaders from the boarder tribes in the three countries were invited this meeting was attended by the head of CEWARN, the country coordinator, and members from the steering committee. A delegate from southern Sudan lead by the southern Sudan peace commissioner attended the meeting. The delegate appreciated the efforts of CEWARN and they promised to activate the southern Sudan side. They expressed their willingness to cooperate with their counter parts in the Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia, both at official and tribal levels. The meeting was fruitful and it laid the foundation for a bigger tribal, consultative meeting to be held later on in Ethiopian.