Protests in Sudan’s capital against water cuts, removal of market

On Friday morning, residents of the El Rumelia and El Goz districts in southern Khartoum took to the streets in protest against the drinking water outages since the beginning of the fasting month of Ramadan. In downtown Khartoum, hundreds of traders protested against the removal of the Nimir Market last week.

A resident of El Goz told Radio Dabanga that dozens of people took to the streets on Friday morning. They blocked the El Ghaba road leading to the Khartoum-Omdurman bridge with rocks and burning tires.

They chanted slogans against the government, and called for its removal until an anti-riot police force intervened and broke up the protest by force. The police intervened, using tear gas and batons to disperse the demonstrators.  

The source expressed his astonishment about the silence of the Khartoum Water Corporation about “the long daily outages since the beginning of Ramadan. We are now paying SDG60 ($9.80) for a barrel of water sold at the streets”.

Nimir Market

Hundreds of traders protested against the decision of the Commissioner of Khartoum to remove the Nimir Market from the main bus station in downtown Khartoum. The order will be executed on the second day of the Eid El Fitr this week.

In a statement on Thursday, the Khartoum Markets Development Committee said that Commissioner Ahmed Abu Shanab unexpectedly notified them about the removal of the market which accommodates about 1,000 traders and 10,000 workers, without providing any alternatives.

“The decision is unthoughtful and endangering the livelihoods of many people,” the statement reads. “About 400 market traders have mortgaged their houses to finance their enterprises, which means they will not be able to pay back these loans.”