South Kordofan protestors demand ‘end to bloodshed’

The sit-in in Abu Jubeiha in South Kordofan has demanded better services and the removal of gold mining plants that use cyanide, while civil society activists in the state capital, Kadugli, protested against growing insecurity in the region.

One of the participants in the sit-in told Radio Dabanga that health services in the Abu Jubeiha Rural Hospital are very poor, explaining that the size of the hospital is not commensurate with the expanding population of the town and the villages surrounding it.

“We demand the hospital be converted to a Teaching Hospital, along with replacement of hospital management due to poor practice,” he said.

The protestors also demand that electricity in Abu Jubeiha is linked to the central power station, changes in the Water and Agriculture Administration, and removal of gold mining plants which use cyanide.

The source told Radio Dabanga that electricity services in the town do not last more than two hours and the town is experiencing “a suffocating water crisis”. The commercial price for a barrel of water has increased to SDG 150*. 

Demands for stability

A protest took place yesterday in Kadugli in front of the state government secretariat demanding security and an “end to bloodshed”, against the background of repeated violent incidents in the region.

At least 2,000 people fled their homes in Kadugli, capital of South Kordofan, after shootings by paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Force (RSF) in the town last week. This is the second wave of displacement in Kadugli within two months caused by the RSF, according to the Sudanese Human Rights and Development Organisation.

The protestors handed a memorandum to the Secretary General of the South Kordofan government, Mousa Jabir.

They called for the deployment of joint forces in order to secure the roads linking Kadugli to other regions, as well as stability for the agricultural season, achieving justice, and holding those involved in recent events in Kadugli accountable.

The memorandum also called for the restructuring of the Forces for Freedom and Change so that they include all localities in the state, as well as the restructuring of the South Kordofan Anti-Corruption Committee**, and the dissolution of the state’s Reconstruction Fund.

* USD 1 = SDG 55.1375 at the time of posting. As effective foreign exchange rates can vary in Sudan, Radio Dabanga bases all SDG currency conversions on the daily middle US Dollar rate quoted by the Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS).

** The full name of the committee is Empowerment Elimination, Anti-Corruption, and Funds Recovery Committee. Empowerment (tamkin) is the term with which the ousted government of Omar Al Bashir supported its affiliates in state affairs by granting them far-going privileges, including government functions and the setting-up of various companies.

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