Gedaref and Al-Obeid: The Beautiful Joy and Noble greif
By: Abdulaziz Ali Omer
Beneath the overcast sky of Khartoum, shadows of dread loom on the horizon, reviving memories of the tragedy of Al-Fasher. The international community watches in fearful anticipation, praying that the nightmare shall not return. In the thick of these trying hours, the Minister of Foreign Affairs reassured n the Sudanese natives and the wider world, pledging to protect the civilians. . Yet ther question lingers: will Khartoum fullfil its promise? And when shall this madness cease, for the dawn of reconstruction ?
Amid the revelry of a wedding feast, my thoughts wandered to the fate of Al-Obeid.
On a past Saturday, the household of the Vice-Chief of the Habab tribes in Gedaref celebrated the wedding of their son Ashraf. And amidst the ceremony rites, a whisper travelled through the blue expanse of social media out-lets ,that Mr. Idris Mohamed Ali , their son, had been appointed Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, by decree of His Excellency Prime Minister Kamil Idris.. In that moment, happiness swelled and multiplied t, for a son of Gedaref had been honoured with this supreme position.
But in the evening of that day, , the Federal Ministry of Information issued a statement denying the news, affirming that the ambassador remained in his post as deputy head of mission in Germany, and that Mr. Muawia Khalid would continue as Under-Secretary..
Should you ask about Ambassador Idris Mohamed, he is a noble son of Gedaref, a graduate of the Faculty of Law at Al-Neileen University, where he once elected as President of the Students’ Union. . He began his career as office manager to the former Mayor of Gedaref, Mubarak Al-Koda, then moved to the administration of the Cooperative Development Bank, known today as the Nile Bank. His path was not without media brilliance: he presented a programme on Sudanese television that tackled global affairs, through his work in the Media Secretariat of the National Congress.
He served as a third-grade secretary and plenipotentiary Minister at the Ministry, of Foreign Affairs , then representing his country as deputy head of missions in Rwanda, Egypt, and Germany, and spent two terms at Sudan’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York.
Then , n the wake of the December Revolution events in 2019, and he was suspended from his post by a decision of the Committee for Dismantling Empowerment — on the pretext that he had obtained his position through favouritism rather than merit. But the judiciary soon reinstated him.
From here, we raise our hands in salute to Ambassador Idris Mohamed Ali, and to all the men of Sudan’s diplomatic corps. We pray to God that He may reunite the compatriots of Sudan , preserve the integrity of itheir soil, and keep its banner flying high in the heavens of pride and dignity…