West Darfur sit-in demands security

People in Murnei in Kereinik locality in West Darfur have started a sit-in on Monday, demanding security in the region. The protest was triggered by the killing of two farmers by gunmen in the area last week. Protests in Northern State expanded and road blocks were set up in Port Sudan because flour rations to Red Sea state have been reduced.

Thousands of people from Murnei and Sisi joined the sit-in at Murnei Square. Others blocked the bridge on the road between state capital El Geneina and Zalingei, capital of Central Darfur.

They condemned the killing of Hamid Abdelrahman and his nephew Mubarak Juma by gunmen last week, the most recent attack in the area. They blame the authorities that they have not solved the murders.

The protestors in Murnei submitted a memorandum to the authorities on Saturday, demanding security, disarmament, and an end to the violence in the locality. They seek the immediate arrest of the perpetrators, and they want to hold the military commanders in the region and the security committee of Kereinik locality accountable.

Northern State

Protestors set up sit-ins blocking the entrance to the locality buildings of El Golid and El Borgeig in Northern State. They protest against the appointment of new locality directors who were affiliated with the ousted Al Bashir regime.

Northern State Governor Amal Ezzeldin attributed the appointment to the delay in passing the Decentralised Governance Law. “The current law does not allow us to appoint executives from outside the civil service and obliges us to heed career progression in the civil service.”

Ezzeldin said in a statement that the current law represents one of the obstacles in the transition to democracy and achieving the goals of the revolution. He affirmed that he, in coordination with the other state governors, will try to change this on the national level.

Port Sudan

In Port Sudan, capital of Red Sea state, members of Resistance Committees closed several of the main roads with burning tyres in protest against the reduction of the state’s quota of flour from 4,400 (100kg) sacks to 2,000 sacks per day.

In a statement, the Resistance Committees said that they had begun their protests in front of the Ministry of Trade and Industry. They reject the ministry’s promises to increase the state’s quota to 3,000 sacks, demanding that the quota should at least be restored to its previous level of 4,000 sacks.

They further demand that they be provided with the text of the decision to reduce the state’s quota of flour.

Empowerment elimination

The Empowerment Elimination, Anti-Corruption, and Funds Recovery Committee* announced the long-awaited establishment of branches in 15 of the 18 Sudanese states on Sunday. A new committee has now been set-up to work on the dismissal of government employees linked to the former 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.

The Empowerment Elimination, Anti-Corruption, and Funds Recovery Committee was formed in November 2019 after the transitional government approved a law to dismantle the institutions set-up by the regime of Omar Al Bashir and his National Congress Party (NCP). Since then, the Committee has been instrumental in breaking the party’s grip on the political scene and state resources. However, many officials linked with the former regime are still deployed on state and locality levels.

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