Sudan protests continue, leading up to ‘March of Millions’

Demonstrations and vigils calling for an independent investigation into the violent dispersal of protesters at the Khartoum sit-in on June 3 and a civilian-led government continued in Khartoum and state capitals on Tuesday. Military Intelligence in eastern Sudan’s El Gedaref detained a leading member of the Alliance for Freedom and Change (AFC).

According to the protest schedule announced by the AFC on Saturday, the protests planned for this week will lead up to the protest March of Millions on Sunday June 30.

On Monday evening, anti-junta marches took place in El Shaabiya in Khartoum North, and in Arkaweet and El Shajara in Khartoum, demanding the rapid handover of power to civilians. Residents of Hantoub in Wad Madani, capital of El Gezira, also went to the streets.

Staff of the Faisal Bank in downtown Khartoum were threatened with dismissal on Monday, if they would stage a new protest action. Bank employees held a vigil in front of the building on Thursday.

On Tuesday, medics conducted about 10 protest vigils in the Sudanese capital and the states. Staff of the Ministry of Information, the Cyber Engineering Company, the Saiga Company, and the Sudan Railways Corporation organised protest actions in Khartoum as well.

The vigil organised by personnel of the Stack Medical Research Laboratories was violently broken up by a police force. The Sudanese Professionals Association described the action as “brutal barbarism”, and warned against “the destruction of the country's capacities”.

In El Geneina, capital of West Darfur, medical cadres protested in front of the town’s teaching hospital on Tuesday to demand the return of 25 staff members of the state’s Health Insurance who were dismissed because of their participation in the civil disobedience action and general strike earlier this month.

Medics in Kosti in White Nile state organised a vigil in front of the town’s hospital. Pharmacists and doctors separately organised protests in Atbara in Nile River state.

In Port Sudan, capital of Red Sea state, doctors staged a protest outside the Port Sudan Central Hospital. In Sennar, medical cadres organised a number of vigils. The participants held banners calling for a civilian-led government and the prosecution of those responsible for killing protesters at the sit-in in front of the army command in Khartoum on June 3.

Detained

On Tuesday, Military Intelligence agents held AFC leading member Hussein Taha in El Gedaref in eastern Sudan, and took him to the army command in the state.

An activist told Radio Dabanga that Taha must have been detained because of his participation in protests in front of a fuel station at the Koda Market because of the continuing shortage of petrol and diesel and the long lines of vehicles at the station.

The police in El Gedaref seized a vehicle announcing a public rally to be held by the AFC in El Gedaref on Tuesday on the pretext of not obtaining the necessary permit, activist Jaafar Khidir told this station. He condemned the authorities’ obstruction of the event, considering the holding of public rallies “a basic freedom”.

Students

On Tuesday, people in Wadi Madani, capital of El Gezira, staged a massive demonstration, demanding a civilian-led government and justice regarding the killing of protesters at the Khartoum sit-in in early June.

The protesters, among them a large number of secondary school students, moved through Wadi Madani Market, chanting “blood for blood”, and demanding the postponement of the school year because of “the lack of conducive conditions”.

In Sennar, medical cadres, engineers, lawyers, teachers, and lecturers of Sennar University carried out 13 separate vigils in the state capital Singa on Tuesday.

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