More Sudan teachers strike for salary payment

More teachers have joined a wave of strikes against the non-payment of salaries for educational workers throughout the country. A teacher protest has started in Central Darfur while in West Kordofan, teachers have continued their strike for the third consecutive day.

On Monday, teachers of the basic and higher secondary schools in Bindisi in Central Darfur entered into a strike in protest against the non-payment of their salaries for three months in a row.

One of the teachers told Radio Dabanga: “The strike will last for a week, and if salaries are not paid before next Monday, we will continue to strike until our salaries are paid.”

Teachers in Wad Banda locality, west of El Obeid in West Kordofan, have laid down their tools since Sunday. They also protest the absence of payments of their salaries for the month of September.

The head of one of the workers’ union in the locality, Muhidin Ahmed, said that they would start a larger strike on Wednesday in the event that the salaries are not paid today.

Also, civil servants, teachers, and other employees in West Kordofan’s Abu Zabad locality entered into a three-day strike on October 15, in objection against the non-payment of their dues.

At the same time teachers in El Saleem and El Duba in Northern State, and in South Darfur started a strike with similar motives.

Previously, several work sectors in West Kordofan complained about the non-payment of salaries due to the lack of banks in their localities. In preceding months, teachers’ strikes erupted in Kassala and El Gezira states, against the deteriorated financial and educational situation. Following the holiday of Eid El Adha, teachers demanded the payment of the holiday grants and salary for August. In El Gezira teachers carried out a sit-in in protest against the government’s decision to close more than 200 schools in the state.