Sudan security bars protest of former El Gezira Scheme employees

Police and security officers in El Hasahisa in El Gezira state barred a protest organised by hundreds of dismissed El Gezira Scheme employees, and detained two of their leaders on Tuesday.

Siddig Mustafa, one of the dismissed employees, told Radio Dabanga that early on Tuesday morning, policemen occupied El Mahalej square where the sit-in was to be held, and prevented the protesters from entering the place.

“At the same time, Osman El Samani, the chairman of the employees' protest committee and another committee member were summoned by the security apparatus in Wad Madani to their office,” he said. “They kept them there for hours before releasing them at 4 pm, with the order to return two days later.”

The committee organised the sit-in in protest against the dismissal of 3,500 auditors, engineers, and workers by the El Gezira Scheme administration in 2009, following the privatisation of the Scheme. The dismissed employees did not receive any compensation.

'Not feasible'

El Gezira Scheme, located between the Blue and White Niles south of Khartoum, is a vast region irrigated through gravity by the waters of the Blue Nile. Through the cultivation of cotton, it was the sole source of hard currency for Sudan for nearly eighty years.

President Al Bashir described the Scheme as not feasible and a burden on the country’s budget late 2014.