Salary protests, demos calling for the June 30 ‘intifada’ continue in Sudan

Resistance committees and various political and professional opposition groups continue their preparations for the launch of the June 30 Marches of the Millions, calling for the overthrow of the military rulers of the country. Protests calling for the implementation of the 2022 revised salary schedule continue in Red Sea state.

The resistance committees active in the neighbourhoods and villages in the country continue to run parades and vigils to call for mass participation in the intifada Marches of the Millions coming Thursday calling for “full civilian rule”.

Earlier Radio Dabanga reported that the Association of Sudanese Abroad urged people planning to travel “to adjust their travel conditions to and from Sudan before June 30, the date of the popular uprising that the country has not witnessed before”.

The Association warned that “the air, sea and land borders will be closed by order of the people, meaning whoever is inside remains inside, and whoever is abroad remains abroad.”

The Central Committee of Sudan Doctors (CCSD) stressed its “full readiness to treat protesters on the 30th of June in field aid teams and hospital emergency wards” in a statement yesterday. The doctors as well called on their colleagues to urgently help setting up strike committees for June 30.

The statement said that the June 30 demonstrations coincide with a campaign calling for criminalising the use of violence against protesters and the banning of shotguns.

The CCSD also stated that they are working on the formation of committees and elected union bodies to complete the re-establishment of a Sudan Doctors Union.

Other protests

Civil servants in eastern Sudan’s Red Sea state have given the state government 48 hours to adjust their salaries according to the 2022 new salary structure, and threatened to escalate their protests in case the authorities wound not comply.

In a memorandum submitted to the governor of Red Sea state in Port Sudan yesterday, the Civil Servants Steering Committee demanded the differences in the salary structure from January onward to be paid at the end of this month.

Last week, other states as well witnessed various protests concerning the federal authorities’ failure to implement the promised 2022 salary structure, which increases wages amidst Sudan’s rising inflation. Despite almost being halfway through the year, many workers are still paid their old salaries instead of the increased 2022 wage.

In El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, junior doctors announced “a comprehensive and open strike” in three hospitals of the city, starting from Friday.

They protest the refusal of the North Darfur Ministry of Health refusal to submit their names to the state’s Medical Council for official approval of their deployment at the hospitals.

The junior doctors said in a statement yesterday that the strike includes the El Fasher Teaching Hospital, the Saudi Hospital and the Children's Hospital. They accused the state health ministry of “not being serious and using evasive tactics”.

Land issues

Residents living in north-east Nyala, capital of South Darfur, marched to the South Darfur government offices in the city on Sunday morning, to protest against the confiscation of “the only bus station in the neighbourhood,” protesters told Radio Dabanga.

They said that the state government had sold the site to the tax office without prior public notice.

In eastern Sudan, the El Gedaref Resistance Committees Coordination, organized a sit-in on Sunday, in rejection to the state’s Finance Ministry to sell land by public auction.

The participants in the vigil said that the sale of lands “is an attempt by the ministry to increase its budget”. They considered this “a waste of the rights of future generations”.

They noted that the ministry postponed the auction scheduled for Sunday due to the protests.