For 30 years, the Sudanese people have been living under the rule of a corrupt military president who has wasted state resources, impoverished and displaced its people. When the horizon of life closed, the uprising of the people began with a peaceful march in protest against the current regime.
The protests started on 19 December in the city of Atbara in River Nile state against the tripling of the price of bread.
Demonstrators set fire to the headquarters of the ruling National Congress party, burning it to the ground. Many of the protesters involved have been women, teenagers and students.
As for now the anti-government protests that started in the eastern city of Atbara has spread across the country as thousands of people take to the streets to vent their anger –
and not just over food prices but also for the sake of their freedom.
Protests have taken place in the capital, Khartoum, and Atbara, Port Sudan and Madani with those involved vowing not to stop until the current government is overturned.
The anti-government demonstrations have been organised by both grassroots neighbourhood protesters and professional unions, including doctors, lawyers, teachers and students.
The president, Omar al-Bashir, has stated in a previous meeting with Police officials that he is completely satisfied with the use of violence against peaceful protestors.
He also offered to boost police officers’ salaries and pensions and support their accommodation, education and health care. He also encouraged the police force to fire at the protestors.
Security forces have dispersed the protesters with tear gas as well as using live ammunition.
Peaceful protestors back in Sudan are being imprisoned or killed for challenging the Bashir regime. According to Amnesty International at least 37 people have been killed since the protests began and the number is still rising.
It is far from the first time that there has been an outcry against the rule of Bashir, whose presidency has been marked by multiple civil wars and brutal repression. But these protests started and spread in a different way from previous ones, which have often begun in the capital and focused on Khartoum-specific issues.
More protests are planned for coming weeks, and protesters say they will continue as long as Bashir is in power.
The detainees:
1 / Yousef Mohammed Ibrahim Al – Hassani
2 / Nasr Eddin Ahmed Mohammed
3 / Adel Amin Hassan
4 / Mehdi Mahmoud
5 / Ahmed Abdul Rahman Sark
6 / Adam Mohammed Ahmed Said
7 / Mansour Ali Obaid
8 / Idris Mohamed Ismail
9 / Ahmed Al Saadi
10 / Abdullah Al-Tuff
11 / Amjad Mohammed Brima 20 years old
12 / Elfatih Mohamed Kishanki 19 years
13 / Abdullah Omar 16 years old
14 / Hadi and Dabook
15 / Khaled Beshri
16 / Youssef Fadl
17 / Rafie Abdullah Kambouri
18 / Musab Salah Al-Bilah
19 / Nasr Eddin Farah Ahmed
Words by Noon Hassan
Illustrations by Dar Al Naim
Dar Al Naim is a prolific and impulsive young Sudanese artist. The work she creates demonstrates a dynamic look into her nomadic, afropolitan and diasporic way of life. Her compulsive need to produce shows in her extensive body of work and the multiple subjects she is continually researching. Both her colourful; illustrations paintings, textile work, prints and her black and white ink drawings alike are detailed, obsessive, free and full of Sudanese cultural and symbolic connotations.
@daralnaimart
