Protest actions against water, power outages in Sudan capital

On Sunday, people from the densely populated district of Ombadda in Omdurman closed the street opposite the Water Corporation in Khartoum in protest against continuing water outages. Staff of electricity companies in Khartoum laid down their tools.

“We closed El Jumhuriya Street [in downtown Khartoum] to show the Water Corporation that we are fed-up with having to buy expensive water from donkey carts,” an angry resident from Ombadda told Radio Dabanga.

He said that the entire state of Khartoum has been suffering from water and electricity outages for more than a month.

Personnel of the electricity companies in Khartoum announced on Sunday that they stopped working. They closed University Street, north of Jumhuriya Street, with vehicles of their companies, and demanded the director of the Sudanese Electricity Distribution Company to hold a press conference to inform the people about the electricity supply in Khartoum “in a transparent manner”.

They said that a number of staff members have been attacked by customers because of the power cuts.

They described the statements of the director about “the stability of the provision of electricity during the month of Ramadan” as inaccurate – which led to tensions between angry customers and staff members.

According to employees of the Sudanese Electricity Distribution Company, the number of complaints exceeded 2,000 on Sunday.