Sudan uprising: Countrywide response to call by Sudanese Professionals Assoc

On Tuesday, medical professionals in the capital Khartoum and eight states carried out protest vigils demanding the unconditional step-down of President Al Bashir and his regime, in response to a call by the Sudanese Professionals Association and forces signatory to the Declaration of Freedom and Change.

In Khartoum, doctors, dentists, pharmacists, and laboratory and radiation technicians organised more than 10 vigils in various hospitals in Khartoum, Omdurman, and Khartoum North. The students of the Faculty of Pharmacy of El Ahfad University held a sit-in as well.

Nyala, El Obeid, Sennar, Kassala, Wad Madani, El Duweim, El Managil, and Shendi also witnessed protest vigils.

The medics held banners during the vigils demanding the overthrow of the regime, condemning the use of violence against peaceful demonstrators and killing and arresting them.

Professors protest

On Tuesday afternoon, university lecturers of the University of Khartoum responded to the call and carried out a vigil at the university’s staff club.

Witnesses said that the security forces besieged the staff club with a large number of Land Cruisers and arrested 16 lecturers as they left.

They say the vigil lasted for an hour in which the staff carried banners demanding the overthrow of the regime, and condemning the suppression of demonstrators, killing, arresting and torturing them.

Media march prevented

Security forces besieged the Ministry of Information before members of the Sudanese Media Association could hold a protest march. They arrested a number of journalists including Abubakr Abdeen, Wael El Hasan, and Aziza Awadelkarim.

In Wad Madani, capital of El Gezira in central Sudan, agents of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) detained two doctors following a vigil carried out by medical staff in front of the Wad Madani Teaching Hospital.

Doctors

A statement issued by the El Gezira Doctors Committee gave the authorities two hours to release the doctors.

The committee threatened to launch a comprehensive strike in the event they are not released. The statement denounced the method of repression and violence practiced by the security apparatus against the doctors and other segments of society, considering the vigils as legitimate for doctors.

The committee announced its strong stance against any harm to the doctors.

The statement demanded that doctors should not be subjected to such repressive methods in respect to the profession.

On Tuesday, employees of the Dal Group, a major industrial private company, organised a protest in front of the company’s Coca-Cola department and the SAIGA grain mills in Khartoum, demanding the departure of the regime and accountability of those involved in committing crimes in the country.

The employees held banners calling on Al Bashir to step down and toppling of the regime.

They chanted slogans calling for the immediate departure of the regime and release of the detainees.