Sudanese bank and laboratory personnel on strike

Workers at the Bank of Khartoum continued their strike for the second day in a row yesterday to demand an increase in wages. A nation-wide strike by the Central Committee of Medical Laboratories entered its third day yesterday to demand various professional, administrative, and financial changes.

Civilians gathered in front of different Bank of Khartoum branches yesterday to express their dissatisfaction over the suspension of the bank’s services for the past two days. The strike and subsequent closure of the bank caused disruption. Many people explained that they had not been able to receive their transfers from abroad in the past two days because of the strike.

The protesters demanded that officials intervene urgently to solve the problem. They warned of the effects of the bank’s suspension on the flow of remittances from abroad.

The acting governor of the Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS), Mohamed Ahmed Bushra, dismissed an earlier decision taken by the CBoS governor regarding the return of 129 employees who were removed from their position by the Empowerment Removal Committee*, which fights corruption in Sudan

The decision stipulated the implementation of the Empowerment Removal Committee’s decisions regarding the termination of the employees’ contracts.

Bushra called on the employees concerned to submit their requests to the committee in accordance with the procedures stipulated in the law.

Medical laboratory staff on strike

A nation-wide strike by the Central Committee of Medical Laboratories entered its third day yesterday to demand various professional, administrative, and financial changes.

A number of strikers in North Kordofan told Radio Dabanga that they hold the state and the federal health ministries responsible for the deterioration of the diagnostic services provided by the medical laboratories in health facilities. They indicated that laboratories face supply shortages, causing instability in the services provided.

* The Empowerment Removal Committee, officially called the Empowerment Elimination, Anti-Corruption, and Funds Recovery Committee was established by the new government in 2019 to purge Sudan of the remnants of the Al Bashir regime. Empowerment (tamkin) is the term with which the ousted government of Omar Al Bashir supported its affiliates in state affairs by granting them far-going privileges, including government functions and the setting-up of various companies.