Must-read articles and tweets on #SudanRevolts:
September 29, 2013
Update on Martyrs’ Friday Sept. 27, 2013 – Girifna
On Thursday, September 26, calls started appearing on social media urging citizens to protest all over Sudan on what was called Martyrs’ Friday– a day to remember those who have fallen while protesting peacefully (since Monday September 23) mainly by receiving live bullets from riot police, security agents or regime militias. In Khartoum those going to Friday prayers were being prevented from entering or reaching mosques in Omdurman, Al Riyadh and Bahri. Authorities also imposed tight security procedures in streets leading to mosques in Omdurman, Bahry, Khartoum and River Nile State. Despite the tight security, citizens in many of these locations managed to organize sizable protests. Eyewitnesses reported that an average of 5000 protesters assembled in each of Shambat, Khartoum North, Althawra in Omdurman and in few locations in Khartoum. By the end of Friday, the estimated death toll nationwide since the protests started was up to 200 persons. And the attempts by the regime to obstruct freedom of expression, communication and the flow of information continued, as well as the use of violence to disperse peaceful protests…
Uprising in Sudan: What we know now, by Eric Reeves
In the wake of large, ongoing demonstrations throughout Khartoum/Omdurman on Friday into Saturday (September 28), as well as in other parts of northern Sudan, a tipping point appears to have been reached: people are now more angry than afraid, and nothing could be more dangerous to a regime that has lived by creating fear through its brutal security services and army. Al Arabiya reports that 5,000 people demonstrated in Khartoum on Friday (September 27), and the number continues to be in the thousands today. We may be sure that the National Islamic Front/National Congress party regime, headed by President and indicted génocidaire Omar al-Bashir, has watched carefully the course of uprisings in Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, and Syria. It has learned a good deal, and we are seeing the results of this unfortunate “education” in dramatic fashion in Khartoum and elsewhere. Though information is highly fragmentary, coming from many different sources of varying reliability, there is sufficient overlap and redundancy in accounts to make out the strategy of a regime trying to maintain its stranglehold on national wealth and power…
Sudan’s September uprising: what revolutionists need, by Mohamed Elshabik
The hubris of leadership may yet prove to be the Achilles heel in Sudan where the recent outbreak of demonstrations was triggered by the announcement of oil price increases, deceptively described as ‘cuts to fuel subsidies’. The spark, however, came after the provoking presidential press conference in Khartoum on the 22nd of September. This conference, which was held by the President and not the Minister of Finance, was thought to present brilliant presidential arguments on the economic crisis and the austerity measures his government intends to implement. Instead, the sitting president, who has been in command for 24 years, turned it into a chat-type conference where he told personal stories to an audience of journalists, most of them aligned to his National Congress Party (NCP), who seemed charmed by tales of the president’s bravery and sense of humour. The scattered demonstrations which first began in Wad Madani, the capital of Al-Jazeera state, have grown and spread geographically to reach Khartoum and other cities in Sudan, along with calls for strikes and civil disobedience. The security forces response to the protests was extreme force with live bullets. It is quite interesting to note the limited use of tear gas in the current and ongoing protests; historically, these are usually the first deterrent used by police forces to disperse demonstrations…
A Short tribute Video for #SudanRevolts fallen heroes, they shall never be forgot http://t.co/87DrKM6bf0 via @sudan_baai
— Muhanad (@MuhanadRa) September 29, 2013
September 28, 2013
Sudan police fire teargas as thousands demand Bashir quit – Reuters
Sudanese police on Saturday fired teargas to break up thousands of protesters who were calling President Omar Hassan al-Bashir a killer, witnesses said, after days of unrest in which dozens of people have died. Daily demonstrations this week followed the government cutting fuel and cooking gas subsidies on Monday when pump prices doubled overnight. Four protesters were shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Friday, police said, bringing the official death toll to 33. In Khartoum’s Burri district, home to a top government official, more than 1,000 people gathered for the funeral of one of the victims, Salah Mudahir Sanhuri, a doctor from a prominent merchant family with ties to the government. Within half an hour the crowd grew to over 3,000 people, many of whom were shouting “Bashir, you are a killer” and “Freedom, freedom,” witnesses said. Police fired teargas into the crowd several times. On Friday, more than 5,000 people demonstrated in Khartoum, the biggest turnout in central Sudan for many years. Its borderlands have grappled with insurgencies for decades but the relatively wealthy heartland has seen little turmoil in the recent past…
Islamists, ruling party members chide Sudan’s Bashir amid protests – Reuters
Islamists and members of Sudan’s ruling party called on President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Saturday to cancel deeply unpopular austerity measures, the first sign of dissent inside ruling circles after a week of unrest that has killed dozens. Police fired teargas to break up thousands of people in the capital during a sixth day of protests against cuts to subsidies on cooking oil and fuel that doubled pump prices overnight. Some in the crowd chanted “Freedom, Freedom” and “Bashir, you are a killer”, said witnesses. “Mr President, in the light what is happening we demand an immediate stop of the economic measures,” read a petition signed by 31 members of the quasi-official Islamist Movement and the ruling National Congress Party (NCP). Bashir has ruled Sudan since coming to power in a bloodless 1989 coup that was backed by Islamists and the country’s powerful army. It is highly unusual for members of the political elite to question his actions publicly. “The government has not allowed citizens to demonstrate peacefully,” the petition added, urging prosecution for those responsible for opening fire on protesters and compensation for relatives of killed people…
Is Sudan’s Uprising the Beginning of the End of Omar al Bashir? by John Prendergast
In every one of those 24 years, commentators have predicted that the demise of General Omar al-Bashir’s reign over Sudan was at hand. Yet he has hung on through his ruthless and vast security and intelligence network that has brutally repressed citizen dissent in the cities as well as paramilitary ethnic-based militias that have committed mass atrocities against rural populations accused of supporting a variety of rebellions. Finally, the long-predicted end may be near. An uprising throughout Sudan’s cities is gaining traction and metastasizing hourly. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of protesters have been killed by Bashir’s security services, which are using live ammunition to attempt to quell the unrest. Young protesters appear to comprise the bulk of those killed so far. (Here is a Flickr account with sometimes graphic photos from the protests.) These latest killings have occurred in the context of a spiral of popular protests triggered by the removal of subsidies on essential commodities, which has led to a burst of inflation. More deeply, the street action is driven by an explosion of anger after nearly two and a half decades of total and unilateral control of the political life and national economy by Khartoum’s Islamist regime, led by the ruling National Congress Party (known as the NCP)…
#Abena demonstrations in Sudan
Mapping The ongoing demonstrations in Sudan
Please follow this page for the latest protest videos #Sudan #SudanRevolts #Abena https://t.co/HbW3TbK3pv
— Namaa Al-Mahdi نعماء (@Namaa0009) September 27, 2013
