KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's military council and its main opposition coalition have agreed a constitutional declaration to usher in a new period of transitional government, African Union mediator for Sudan Mohamed Hassan Lebatt told a news conference in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Lebatt said that the delegations will continue talks on Saturday over the technical details of the signature procedures but did not elaborate further on the contents of the declaration.

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. </s> At least 22 primary school children drown after boat sinks in Sudan

At least 22 children drowned on their way to school when their boat capsized in swollen waters of the Nile river north of the Sudanese capital yesterday, official media said. A woman on board also died when the vessel carrying more than 40 children sank about 750 kilometres from the capital, SUNA news agency reported.

Rescue workers were sent to recover victims’ bodies, according to the Sudanese civil defence and a witness.

“This morning, 22 schoolchildren and one woman died when their boat sank in Bouhayra in Nile State as they travelled to school from Kneissa,” SUNA reported.

“The accident was caused by engine failure half-way across because of a strong current,” it said.

According to witness Ibrahim Hassan, at least nine children survived the ordeal.

SUNA said the small boat was overloaded, carrying about 30 sacks of sweet potatoes and 10 bags of grain in addition to the children and the woman, an employee at a local hospital.

Villagers in the region rely on wooden boats to cross the Nile.

Another witness told AFP by telephone that the boat had been crossing the river against the current.

“All the families (in the area) are in mourning,” said the witness, who did not want to be named.

In the deadliest Nile accident of its kind in Sudan, 50 students drowned in August 2000 when their wooden barge overturned 350 kilometres southeast of Khartoum.

In September 2014, 13 Sudanese drowned when a boat sank north of Khartoum.

The Nile, which is nearly 6,700 kilometres long, is formed by the convergence of the White Nile, which has its source in Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile, which originates in Ethiopia’s Lake Tana.

The two rivers meet in Khartoum before the Nile crosses through Egypt to reach the Mediterranean.

Water levels in the Nile rise every year during the rainy season in Ethiopia, and United Nations aid agencies regularly warn of floods in Sudan between July and November.

Heavy rains in Khartoum yesterday morning flooded the capital’s streets and electricity was cut in most neighbourhoods.

Authorities in the capital announced the suspension of classes until the end of the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha on August 25.

In August 2013, floods killed 50 people, most of them in Khartoum.

The floods, the most serious to hit the Sudanese capital in 25 years according to the UN, effected hundreds of thousands of people. – AFP </s> Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir extended his defiance of the International Criminal Court arrest warrant to Kigali, Rwanda where he travelled to sign the attend the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Sudan joined forty three other African nations which signed the AfCFTA aimed at paving the way for a liberalized market for goods and services across the continent.

The AfCFTA is one of the flagship projects of Agenda 2063 and aims to deepen the integration process, by allowing Africans to trade and move freely across the continent.

President Bashir is under two International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants since 2008 for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes allegedly committed in Darfur.

The Sudanese president has however visited several African states that are members of the ICC including Uganda, Egypt and Rwanda but he was not arrested.

Rwanda is not a state party to the tribunal of war crimes but has the obligation as a member of the United Nations to cooperate with the court. However, like many other African capitals, Kigali is critical to ICC and to its focus on Africa.

In December, last year, Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame held talks with Bashir in Khartoum and the two leaders agreed to jointly fight the ICC, accusing it of bias against African leaders.

Kagame, who is the African Union chairperson, stressed that the continent’s position was against the ICC, stating that the continent’s leaders were victims of its biased justice.

The ICC recently warned that it would refer Jordan to the U.N. Security Council for failing to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir when he visited Amman in March last year.

South Africa is the only country where Bashir was troubled as a local human rights group lodged an application in court challenging the country’s failure to arrest a ‘war criminal’ despite the ICC obligations.

He eventually left the country before the end of the African Union summit he was attending, disregarding a court order that would have seen his detained and handed over to the ICC. </s> MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The countries are replacing Angola, Malaysia, New Zealand, Spain and Venezuela, whose mandate expired on December 31.

The UN Security Council consists of 15 states, namely five permanent (Russia, France, China, the United States and the United Kingdom) and 10 non-permanent members that are to be elected for two years.

Egypt, Japan, Senegal, Ukraine and Uruguay will remain non-permanent members of the council, with their terms expiring on December 31, 2017. </s> President Muhammadu Buhari left Abuja on Saturday for Poland to attend the 24th session of the Climate Change Conference known as the Parties (COP24).

Mr. Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President (Media & Publicity), said in a statement on Friday that COP24, under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), would hold from December 2-4, 2018 in the Polish city of Katowice..

The COP24 Summit, taking place at the International Conference Centre (MCK) and the adjacent Spodek Arena in Katowice, is being convened under the Presidency of Poland.

According to the organisers, the conference is expected to finalise the rules for implementation of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change under the Paris Agreement Work Programme (PAWP) – the rule book for implementation.

During the Leaders’ Summit at COP24, President Buhari will deliver a national statement highlighting Nigeria’s commitment to addressing climate change by implementing the goals set out in its National Determined Contributions, Adesina said.

The president would also use the occasion to accentuate Nigeria’s willingness to work with international partners to reverse the negative effects of climate change in Africa and the world over.

He said President Buhari would be expecting that developed nations scale up their emission reduction activities in order to limit the increase in average global temperatures to well below 2 degrees centigrade between now and 2020.

The Leaders’ Summit is expected to adopt a ‘‘Declaration on Solidarity and Just Transition Silesia,’’ – named after the region of Poland where this year’s climate conference is taking place, he said.

As a member of the Committee of the African Heads of State on Climate Change – a group of 10 African countries that meets and takes positions concerning issues of climate change on behalf of the continent – Nigeria has been at the forefront of advancing policies and initiatives.

It is aimed at addressing significant challenges occasioned by climate change such as reviving the Lake Chad, halting and reversing desertification, flooding, ocean surge and oil spillage.

President Buhari will continue to champion these pressing issues at COP24 in Katowice, among others, as well as reiterate Nigeria’s position on the need for African countries to access financial resources, especially the Green Climate Fund to draw up climate change adaptation policies and actions for implementation.

The Nigerian delegation will also showcase the policy measures and actions of the Federal Government at ensuring environmental sustainability and effectively combating climate change through several side events within the Nigerian pavilion.

While in Poland, President Buhari will hold an interactive session with the Nigerian community in that country.

The Nigerian leader is also scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with the President of Poland Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

The President was accompanied by Governors Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu, Yahaya Bello of Kogi and Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger.

Others on his entourage were the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, and the Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Jibrin. </s> Bolivia, Ethiopia, Italy, Kazakhstan and Sweden will begin their two-year term as non-permanent members of the UN Security Council on Sunday, January 1.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The countries are replacing Angola, Malaysia, New Zealand, Spain and Venezuela, whose mandate expired on December 31.

On January 1, 2018, the Netherlands will replace Italy as a non-permanent member of the council on January 1, 2018, according to an agreement reached by Rome and Amsterdam after they both received 95 votes each following five rounds of voting in the General Assembly.

The UN Security Council consists of 15 states, namely five permanent (Russia, France, China, the United States and the United Kingdom) and 10 non-permanent members that are to be elected for two years. Egypt, Japan, Senegal, Ukraine and Uruguay will remain non-permanent members of the council, with their terms expiring on December 31, 2017. </s> At least 22 dead, majority children, as boat sinks in River Nile in Sudan

(SKY NEWS) – At least 23 people, the majority of whom are children, have died after a boat sank in the River Nile in Sudan.

The boat was carrying more than 40 pupils on their way to school in the north of the country, before suffering a technical failure, according to Sudan’s state news agency.

At least 22 students and a woman were killed in the country’s northern River Nile state, with civil defence forces searching waters for the missing, but are yet to recover any bodies.

A female hospital employee was among those drowned some 470 miles north of Sudan’s capital Khartoum.

“The accident was caused by engine failure halfway across because of a strong current,” said the SUNA news agency.

It also reported the small boat was overloaded with about 30 sacks of sweet potatoes and 10 bags of grain, in addition to the human cargo.

One witness said at least nine children survived the tragedy.

The River Nile state is one of 18 wilayat (states) of Sudan, with an estimated population of more than one million, where locals rely on wooden boats to cross the waterway.

Sudan experiences monsoon rains between June and November, which cause the River Nile and its tributaries to overflow.

United Nations aid agencies regularly warn of floods during this period.

Khartoum sits where the White Nile, which flows north from Lake Victoria, meets the Blue Nile, which flows west from Ethiopia.

Classes have been suspended in the capital until August 25 due to heavy rains in Khartoum flooding streets and amid power outages.

At nearly 6,700km (4,160 miles) in length, the River Nile is argued by many to be the world’s longest river.

It is an important transport route for goods and people in much of northeastern Africa.

In August 2000, 50 students drowned when their wooden barge overturned southeast of Khartoum.

Another boat tragedy, in September 2014, saw 13 people drowned north of the capital. </s> Persons stand in front of the headquarters of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, in Vienna, Austria, Saturday, Dec. 10, 2016. OPEC member states are meeting with Russia and other non-OPEC countries in Vienna for talks about a reduction in oil production. Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo said the discussions began Saturday in a "positive atmosphere" at the headquarters of the oil producers' cartel. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak) </s> WASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuters) - The Inter-American Development Bank on Friday canceled its annual meeting in China for next week after Beijing refused to allow a representative of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido to attend, two sources with knowledge of the decision said.

The sources said the decision to call off the meeting was made by the board of the IADB, the region's biggest lender, after China refused to change its position. The sources said the board would vote within 30 days to reschedule the annual meeting for another date and location.
Member states of the Nile Basin Initiative hold their annual meeting in Khartoum after a two-year hiatus.