Barricades paralyse Sudan’s railways – protestors asked to clear lines

The Sudanese Railway Corporation has confirmed that there are more than 550 train cars loaded with goods, supplies, and petrol estimated at 16,000 tons, stuck at various train stations between Port Sudan and Khartoum North.

Esameldin Mohamed Ahmed, a member of the corporation appealed to the protesters near the railway station in Khartoum to remove their barricades, which are impeding the delivery of food and fuel to people living in the western part of the country, White Nile state, El Gezira and Sennar.

He told the official Sudan News Agency (SUNA) that the trains are carrying several types of supplies such as flour, wheat, and sugar in addition to petroleum materials.

Barricades

Public anger erupted on the streets of Khartoum last week after the commander of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and effective Vice-President as deputy-head of the Transitional Military Council (TMC), Lt Gen Mohamed Hamdan (aka Hemeti), appealed to protesters to re-open roads, bridges, and railway lines, to allow normal logistical traffic to resume.

Hemeti’s appeal was met with jeers and chanting “the revolution has just begun”.

Youths and protesters erected barricades in the periphery of the main sit-in that has been sustained in front of the General Command of the Sudanese army since April 6.

The barricades include makeshift stone walls and barbed wire, while some protesters dug trenches.

Roads closed

The residents of El Jereif East in Khartoum have closed a number of internal roads in protest against the continuing electricity and water disruptions in the district.

Badreldin El Haj, a community leader in the district told Radio Dabanga that the demonstrators have threatened to close the bridge linking Eastern Nile with Khartoum, adding that the price of a barrel of water at the black market now costs more than SDG 200 ($4.44)*.

He accused “loyalists of the former regime” of deliberately igniting the current crises.

On Friday, thousands of people in Suakin near Port Sudan, capital of Red Sea state, closed a part of the Khartoum-Port Sudan highway as part of a sit-in that continues for the second day to call for the demands of the revolution and in protest against the electricity, water, and bread crises.

* As effective foreign exchange rates can vary in Sudan, Radio Dabanga bases all SDG currency conversions on the daily US Dollar rate quoted by the Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS)

Visit www.dabangasudan.org for ongoing coverage and independent news from Sudan