EMBASSY CAIRO DELIVERS DEMARCHE ON GOVERNMENT OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L CAIRO 000404 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ELA, AF/SPG E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/08/2019 TAGS: PREL KPKO SU EG SUBJECT: EMBASSY CAIRO DELIVERS DEMARCHE ON GOVERNMENT OF SUDAN DECISION TO EXPEL NGOS REF: STATE 21511 Classified By: Minister Counselor for Economic and Political Affairs William R. Stewart for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Post delivered reftel demarche on the Government of Sudan's (GOS) decision to expel NGOs to Hisham Youssef, Chief of Staff of the Arab League, and to Ahmed Abu Zeid, Egyptian MFA Cabinet Advisor on African Affairs on March 8. Youssef told us that the Arab League (AL) shares our concerns about the expulsion of the NGOs from Darfur. He said that AL SYG Moussa raised the issue in discussions with Sudanese President Bashir on March 7 in Khartoum. Youssef said that based on Moussa's conversation, the GOS decided to give the NGOs three additional days to leave the country. According to Youssef, the GOS's position was that the NGOs had violated their mandate by "passing information" (NFI) to the ICC, which the GOS said is unacceptable. However, Youssef said that the AL was continuing to negotiate for more time for the NGOs in hopes that the situation could be resolved. ¶2. (C) In a separate meeting, Abu Zeid agreed that the decision to expel the NGOs "sends the wrong message." He opined that the GOS acted out of "revenge," but could not target the foreign diplomatic presence or the United Nations. Hence, it targeted the NGOs. He told us that the Government of Egypt was already considering how to convey a similar message to Khartoum regarding the counterproductive nature of expelling the NGOs. He said that he would pass the USG message to FM Aboul Gheit. SCOBEY