The Economic Development Sector of the Council of Ministers, chaired by the Minister of Finance, Ali Mahmoud, approved in its meeting Tuesday exemption of the pharmaceutical inputs from the import fee (03%) and the Value-added tax (17%).
Meanwhile, the Economic Development Sector recommended formation of a mechanism to follow up the impact of exemption from taxes on the medicines' prices, support to the National Laboratory and encouraging investment in the pharmaceutical industry .
The Economic Development Sector approved the agreement on cooperation between the Republic of Sudan and the Government of Saudi Arabia in the field of sea transport .

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it will lead an extensive move at the international and regional levels to inform about dimension of the crime committed by the so-called Revolutionary Front, including its physical liquidation to a number of leaders of the Sudanese Justice and Equality Movement who are signatories of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur .
In a press statement , the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Abu-Bakr Al-Siddiq, said that the crime represented a targeting to the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur which gained support from the international community on ground that it provides the proper solution for Darfur issue .
He said that the international community, the governments in the region and other countries are expected to adopt serious measures and to impose sanctions against the terrorist group which committed the assassinations and not to allow its members to exist at their territories .
Ambassador Al-Siddiq explained that the Foreign Ministry's move will include the Security Council, the African Union and other organizations, explaining that the so-called Revolutionary front is targeting the civilians, civil institutions, the basic services and using the civilians as human shields .

The Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union (AU), Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, has learnt, with great shock, about the ambush and killing, on 12 May 2013, at the border between Chad and Sudan, of the leader of the Justice and Equality Movement-Sudan (JEM-S), Commander Mohamed Bashar, his deputy, Suleiman Arko Dahiya, and many other members of the JEM-S, who were heading to Darfur on a peace mission. The Chairperson of the Commission wishes to recall that Mohamed Bashar and his Movement had embraced peace by signing an agreement with the Government of Sudan, on 6 April 2013, in Doha, Qatar .
The Chairperson of the Commission condemns, in the strongest possible terms, this cowardly act, aimed at dissuading the hold out groups in Darfur from joining the peace process. She urges the Government of Sudan, with the support of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), to bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice. In the meantime, she urges restraint on the part of the JEM-Bashar followers in order to allow the law to take its full course. She expresses the AU's heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased
The Chairperson of the Commission, once again, urges the hold-out movements from Darfur to emulate JEM-S and join the peace process in the interest of peace and stability in Darfur .

The Joint Representative of the United Nations and African Union Mission for Darfur (UNAMID), Mohamed Ibn Chambas, has strongly condemned the assassination of Mohamed Bashar, leader of the peace agreement signatory faction of the Justice and Equality Movement and a number of his colleagues .
in a press statement issued at the UNAMID headquarters in Al Fasher, Ibn Chambas said that that the peace agreement signatory group has clearly expressed its preference to the peaceful solution for the dispute in Darfur when it has joined the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) in last April in Doha ..
He has also expressed his deep condolences to the families of the deceased persons, adding that the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur has obtained full support of the African Union, the United Nations and the international community in general as a road map for durable peace in Darfur
Mr. Chambas has urged all sides involved in the fighting in Darfur, especially the non-signatory armed movements, to stop hostilities, respect the International Humanitarian Law and engage fully in the peaceful settlement of the conflict .

The National Commission for Human Rights, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), are due to organize Tuesday in Damazin town, the Blue Nile State, a workshop on Enhancement and Protection of Human Rights in Sudan .
The workshop will discuss two papers on the situations of Human Rights at Conflict-Hit areas which would be presented by Ali Abu Raid, and another on Mechanisms of Enhancement and Protection of Human Rights that would be presented by Abdalla Mohamed Al-Fekki .
The workshop will be attended by the Wali (governor) of the Blue Nile State, Hussein Yassin Hamad, and executive and political leaderships in the state, besides representatives of the civil society organizations and justice institutions .