Sudan: Doctors, teachers on strike in Blue Nile, West Darfur

Medical staff members of various hospitals in Ed Damazine and El Roseiris in Blue Nile state laid down their tools on Wednesday, in protest against the assault on doctors at Ed Damazin Royal Hospital earlier that day. Teachers in West Darfur say they will continue their strike until all their demands are met.

Abdelaziz Soreiba, leading member of the Alliance of Freedom and Change in Ed Damazin, capital of Blue Nile state, told Radio Dabanga that a force wearing military uniforms attacked doctors working at Ed Damazin Royal Hospital on Wednesday. The reason for the attack is not clear.

“The medics condition the lifting of their open-ended strike with the arrest of the assailants and the protection of all medical personnel in the state's hospitals and health centres,” Soreiba said.

The hospitals concerned are the Ed Damazin Royal Hospital, the Roseiris Hospital, the Chinese Friendship Hospital, the Health Insurance Hospital and all its health centres in Ed Damazin.

In December last year, doctors in Ed Damazin embarked on a strike in protest against the non-payment of their incentives since July.

El Geneina

For the fifth day in a row, teachers are holding a sit-in in front of the office of the Teachers’ Union in the West Darfur capital of El Geneina. They want all their demands raised to the acting governor, Maj Gen Abdelkhalig Badawi, to be agreed on.

Abdelmajid Abdallah, the spokesman for the West Darfur Teachers Committee told Radio Dabanga that they discussed their issues in a meeting with the director of education in the state on Wednesday.

“We reached an agreement on restructuring the management system of the Ministry of Education as well as cancellation of some deductions to the teachers’ salaries,” he said.

Other discussion points were postponed to a second meeting, on Sunday. “The issues that can only be decided upon by the acting state governor have been delayed until we meet with him,” Abdallah added.

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