Reporter fined for West Darfur bread riot

Agents of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) arrested journalist Alaludin Babikir of El Raiulam newspaper on Wednesday, and fined him for inciting a bread riot.

The NISS held Babikir on charges of incitement of a bread demonstration that erupted in El Geneina in West Darfur several months ago.

A source told Radio Dabanga that the security authorities fined him SDG30,000 ($5,000) for damage to the building of the El Geneina judiciary during the demonstration during which citizens took to the city’s streets to protest a shortage of bread and soaring bread prices.

Babikir covered the demonstration for El Raiulam, but has been accused of inciting the riot itself.