Nightly sit-in against Port Sudan’s power outages

Residents of Port Sudan went on a sit-in from Wednesday to Thursday against the intermittent power outages that have lasted for at least four weeks. A new civil society organisation has called on Khartoum to counter the human trafficking and drugs smuggling in eastern Sudan.

Dozens of people from El Iskan district in the capital of Red Sea started the sit-in on Wednesday evening and did not stop until the early hours of Thursday. The protest took place at the premises of a power station.

Journalist El Ami Sinada told Radio Dabanga that residents of neighbouring Salalab district joined the sit-in. They also suffer from the constant power outages and lack of drinking water. The burning of waste in El Iskan causes problems, too.

Most areas in the state capital of Red Sea in eastern Sudan lack drinking water services, and residents rely on donkey carts for drinking water supply, amid soaring prices for water, Radio Dabanga reported last month.

Sinada said that somenhow the house prices are on the rise while there is a lack of services in El Iskan.

Organisation against smuggling

In Port Sudan, civil society organisation El Birish Platform, which was inaugurated on Wednesday, called on the government to stop the political privatisation of vital facilities in the Red Sea. The platform stressed to counter the extreme poverty and poor health, education, electricity and water services in eastern Sudan.

The platform warned about the phenomenon of human trafficking and drugs smuggling, which it said is on the rise. Leader of El Birish Platform, Mohamed El Amin Mohamed El Tahir described the situation in eastern Sudan as a dangerous one.

He accused the government of “failing to exert adequate efforts to extend security and fight against these crimes”. El Tahir said that the platform is now making efforts to raise awareness about the seriousness of human trafficking and drugs.

In February this year, political parties in Sudan's Red Sea State joined a committee to monitor the issue of human trafficking and their root causes in the area. Participants include the Sudanese Congress Party, the Hag Movement, El Tawasul party, the National Umma Party, the Communist Party and the Beja Congress.