Sudan civil society launches ‘Right to Live’ campaign

In response to the many recent incidents of violence in several parts of the country, civil society organisations and activists in Sudan started a campaign in Khartoum on Friday under the name “Protect the right to live”.

Dozens of civil society organisations and activist teams, including a large number of Resistance Committees, the Association of Relatives of the Victims of the December Revolution, and the Darfur Bar Association, agreed to set up the campaign, and are collecting signatures online.

According to its founding declaration, the campaigners consider the right to live as a non-negotiable right. They state that the reasons for the launch of the campaign are “the increase in violence between social components in Sudan, and the growing number of killings in Darfur, the East, Blue Nile, and the Nuba Mountains, at a time while the transitional authorities fail to protect the people”.

They condemn the targeting of civilians by militiamen “protected by the authorities” and the proliferation of arms in conflict areas.

“The government's failure to do justice to the people in conflict areas means the failure of the transitional period,” they state. “We are now demanding a minimum, non-negotiable right to live.”

The activists demand “an immediate cessation of violence against civilians in all its forms, whether killing, rapes, intimidations or plundering”, and call on the Sudanese army “to re-activate its role in protecting civilians in conflict and border areas”.

The government should further achieve justice for the victims of war in the country as soon as possible.

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