Peter Tibber » Ambassador to Sudan

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 the capital. So, last week I spent 3 days in White Nile, Sennar and Gezira … Read more »Travel in White Nile, Sennar and Gezira

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 common ground. Most importantly, the conference endorsed the Darfur Development Strategy (DDS), pulled together by … Read more »Focus on Darfur

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 here. Sudan has big elections coming up in 2015 of course. We’re keen to help … Read more »Gedaref elections: a step on the way towards 2015

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 Sudan has suffered with the separation of South Sudan and the loss of a third … Read more »Doing Business in Sudan

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 we fund for middle-ranking officers called “Managing Defence in the Wider Security Context”. This is … Read more »UK Action on Human Rights

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 the archaeological remains of the kingdom of Kush in Merowe and Karima. We spent a … Read more »New Year in Sudan

I spent the evening marking International Human Rights Day 2012 at an event at Afhad University for Women organised by SEEMA (a Sudanese women’s rights organisation) and supported by the British embassy.       International Human Rights Day provides the opportunity for people to celebrate human rights and to advocate for the full enjoyment of those rights for everyone, everywhere.  I think that this year’s theme – Make Your Voice … Read more »Human Rights Day 2012

I visited Port Sudan for a few days last week.  A 10 hour car journey that began several hours before dawn finally drew to an end as we weaved through the Red Sea hills into a Port Sudan decked out in bunting for the opening of the 6th Red Sea Festival for Tourism and Marketing and caught our first sight of the sea. The festival was one reason for my … Read more »A visit to Port Sudan

The following is a guest post by Deputy Ambassador to Sudan. One of the perks of stepping into the Ambassador’s shoes when he is away is that I occasionally get to represent the United Kingdom at some really uplifting events. Last Friday was a case in point. The Palace Museum had agreed to host an exhibition of photographs and text recording HM The Queen’s Visit here in 1965. This was … Read more »Majesty and Remembrance

Last week I visited El Fasher with my Ambassadorial colleagues from the European Union. It was my second visit to Darfur since I arrived in Sudan nearly three months ago: I visited Nyala a few weeks ago in the same period staff from this embassy visited all of the 5 state capitals. Why the focus on Darfur? It’s partly because Darfur still looms very large in images of Sudan in … Read more »Darfur