Sudan uprising and banners fill streets of Khartoum and state cities

Thousands of Sudanese people took part in more than 20 protest marches in the country on Thursday, making demands for the government to step-down and the abolishment of the national State of Emergency.

In response to the call of signatory parties of the Declaration of Freedom and Change, mass demonstrations were launched at Burri, 60 Street, Ushara, El Sahafa, Jabra, and El Kalakla in Khartoum. The streets were filled with peaceful demonstrators chanting slogans and carrying banners.

They blocked a number of main roads and roads leading to the crowds with burning tires. As a response the security forces faced the demonstrations with excessive violence and tear gas.

Khartoum North

In Khartoum North, five marches were launched in Shambat, El Doroshab, Samrab and El Haj Yousef. An eye-witness told Radio Dabanga that the demonstrators closed El Mauna Street.

The demonstrators in Shambat held pictures of martyrs, people who have been killed during the protests, along with a large number of anti-regime signs. The marches continued for hours before the security forces dispersed them with violence.

Students of private universities in Khartoum also held demonstrations in response to the call of the signatories to the Declaration of Freedom and Change to conduct marches. The students of El Fajr College, Yarmouk University, Ibn Sina University, the Jordanian University and the Academy of Engineering Sciences demonstrated on their campuses and outside the universities.

Omdurman

In the twin-city of Khartoum, protestors marched in five districts, most notably Wad Nubawi, Abrof, Beitelmal, El Busta, and Ombadda.

For more than three hours protests and stand-offs between the security forces and demonstrators continued, and a number of demonstrators were chased and arrested.

Kassala

Teachers in Khashm El Girba, in eastern Sudan's Kassala state, held a protest and a silent march in front of Siteit Secondary School after school students completed the Sudanese certificate examinations on Thursday.

They carried pictures of teacher Ahmed El Kheir who was tortured to death during interrogation by the security forces on January 31. The teachers held banners demanding a retribution for his death.

The death of Ahmed El Kheir formed a major theme of the current protests and demonstrations in the previous week. Starting 7 February, marches took place as part of the March for the Detainees and Victims of Torture and vigils called for by the Sudanese Professionals Assocation.

Also residents of the southern district of El Sawagi demonstrated.

El Gedaref

In response to the nationwide calls for demonstrations, medical doctors and staff held protest vigils in front of El Gedaref, El Faw and Shari El Dakatra hospitals on Thursday.

Red Sea, Sennar

Yesterday, a number of marches took place in El Gezira and Sennar and Red Sea states. In Port Sudan, the capital of Red Sea, security forces dispersed the demonstrations in the market and launched a campaign of arrests against dozens of protesters.

Residents of Galaa district in Sennar also took part in mass demonstrations and chanted revolutionary songs condemning the regime's practices and demanding its immediate departure.

One of the slogans included “All the country is Darfur” a phrase that is steadily gaining popularity among protesters. They closed a number of main roads using barricades and carried banners in both Arabic and English.

New government

This week Sudan's new sworn-in Prime Minister Mohamed Tahir Eila announced that the issues of people’s livelihood and the urgent issues affecting them will be in the priorities of his government. The new caretaker government, announced on Wednesday, has the priority “to complete the peace process and to press ahead in the national dialogue”, according to the official Sudan News Agency (Suna).

Opposition members and activists have said that Eila’s new government includes the same faces with some replacements among 39 ministers including 21 federal minister and 18 state ministers, referring to it as “a joke that will not resolve the crisis”.