Al Bashir likens demonstrators to Darfur’s armed groups

The President of Sudan, Omar al Bashir, has likened the demonstrators who recently took to the streets with the “armed groups in Darfur and some other regions.” They were protesting against the lifting of fuel subsidies and resulting price hikes  Al Bashir, in an interview published by the Saudi newspaper Okaz issued on Monday, said that “the crisis is contained.” The President accused the demonstrators of arson and vandalism, referring to the torching of shops, vehicles and even petrol stations. When the government discovered that the demonstrations were turning into “acts of sabotage and destruction”, he said, it resorted to Plan B: “Special troops arrived on the scene.” “We were ready and well prepared and the whole story was finished in 48 hours.” Al Bashir said that some people expected that insecurity would prevail, but “thank God, conditions returned to normal in just two days”. The Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF, an alliance of opposition groups and parties) described Al Bashir’s Plan B as “the President’s formal recognition of the killing of peaceful protesters, which is the same as what happened in Darfur, the Nuba Mountains and the Blue Nile.” During the recent demonstrations more than 260 Sudanese have died, according to the SRF. The Spokesperson of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), Jibril Adam Bilal, told Radio Dabanga that “al Bashir’s comments and his talk about Plan B constitute a condemnation of the Sudanese government and of the President himself. Plan B meant giving orders to their militias to kill peaceful demonstrators. It had nothing to do with any vandalism or sabotage.” Bilal accused the security forces and the government troops of starting acts of vandalism and arson in order to thwart the demonstrations. File photo by Olivier Chassot/Unamid