Day: November 7, 2021

KHARTOUM —

Sudanese pro-democracy groups launched two days of civil disobedience and strikes on Sunday to protest last month’s military coup. Participation appeared to be limited because of continuing interruptions to internet and phone connections.

Local resistance committees and the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), which led demonstrations in the uprising that toppled then-president Omar al-Bashir in April 2019, are organizing the protests to try to reverse the military takeover.

People were out on Sunday on the streets in the center of the capital, Khartoum, though there was less traffic than usual, residents said.

Members of a teachers’ union said that security forces used tear gas to break up their sit-in at the education ministry building for Khartoum State staged to oppose any handover to military appointees. Some 87 people were arrested, the union said.

In the Burri neighborhood of Khartoum and across the river in the Ombada area of Omdurman, police also used tear gas to break up protests, eyewitnesses said.

There were protests also in the cities of Medani, Nyala, and Atbara, where hundreds protested the reappointment of Bashir loyalists in local government, eyewitnesses said.

Internet disrupted

Some hospitals and medical staff in Khartoum were working normally while others were on strike.

“A number of people did not know about the call for civil disobedience because of the internet cut,” said one resident in central Khartoum who asked not to be named.

Internet services have been badly disrupted since the October 25 coup, and phone coverage remains patchy. Though daily life came to a near standstill, shops, roads, and some banks have reopened since the military takeover.

The coup halted a power-sharing arrangement between the military and civilians that had been agreed to after Bashir’s overthrow and was meant to lead to democratic elections by late 2023.

Top civilians including several ministers were detained, and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok was placed under house arrest.

Since the coup, mediation efforts involving the United Nations have sought the release of detainees and a return to power-sharing, but sources from the ousted government say those efforts have stalled.

On Sunday the commander in chief of the military, Abdel-Fattah Burhan, met an Arab League delegation, which stressed the importance of dialogue and the democratic transition, his office said in a statement.

Burhan told the delegation the military was committed to achieving “the Sudanese people’s ambitions,” the statement said.

Activists demanding that the military exit politics have announced a schedule of protests leading up to mass rallies on November 13 under the slogan “No negotiation, no partnership, no compromise.”

Hundreds of thousands took to the streets against military rule in two demonstrations before and after the October 25 coup.

Western powers have paused economic assistance to Sudan and say that relief on tens of billions of dollars of foreign debt is at risk unless there is a return to democratic transition.

Source: Voice of America

Sudanese military and security agents have continued to arrest civilians including civilian authorities, political activists, human rights defenders, members of resistance committees and others as mass protests and civil disobedience campaigns against the coup continue. In an update on the situation in Sudan published at the weekend, the New York based African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) which works to monitor and promote respect for human rights and legal reform in Sudan, “remains deeply concerned for persons in arbitrary and incommunicado detention”.

In its brief, ACJPS has documented arrests and detention of civilian authorities, political activists, human rights defenders, members of resistance committees and others between 25 October to 4 November in the states of White Nile, North Darfur, Central Darfur, East Darfur, El Gezira, eastern Sudan, and Sennar.

“Sudanese military and security agents are relying on broad powers to arrest and detain people under the Emergency laws and have threatened to bring criminal charges against detainees,” the brief confirms. “The broad powers under the Emergency law have repeatedly given rise to concerns over arbitrary arrest and detention, ill-treatment and torture, and violations of the right to a fair trial, which are facilitated by the virtually complete absence of safeguards and judicial oversight.”

The ACJPS brief points out that the disruptions to the internet and mobile phone connectivity “continue to hinder rights to share and receive information, free expression and peaceful assembly as well as communications within and out of Sudan”, pointing out that communication disruptions have made it difficult to receive monitoring updates in real time.

Source: Radio Dabanga

A resolution has been tabled in the US Congress condemning the October 25 the military coup orchestrated by Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, head of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and President of the now-disbanded Transitional Sovereignty Council in Sudan, standing with the people of Sudan, and underlining US recognition of Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok “as the constitutional leaders of Sudan’s transitional government”. It calls on the US Secretary of State to “immediately identify coup leaders, their accomplices, and enablers for consideration for targeted sanctions…”

The concurrent resolution submitted by Representative Gregory Meeks (Dem NY-5) and supported by Michael McCaul (Rep TX-10) last week, has been referred to the Foreign Affairs and Financial Services committees of Congress.

The resolution also calls for Sudan’s military junta to immediately release all civilian government officials, civil society members, and other individuals detained in connection with the coup, return to constitutional rule under the transitional constitution as the starting point for negotiations with civilians toward full civilian rule, and lift the State of Emergency, including complete restoration of all means of communication, referring to the disruption of internet and telecommunications traffic in Sudan since the coup.

The resolution further calls for the military junta to remove all roadblocks and checkpoints, and order the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and RSF to stand down and comply with international recognized rules of engagement, to ensure security forces respect the right to peaceful protest and hold those who used excessive force and committed other abuses accountable in a transparent, credible process, to cease all attempts to change the civilian composition of the cabinet, Sovereign Council, and other government bodies; and transfer leadership of the Sovereign Council to a civilian member of the Sovereign Council in keeping with the transitional constitution.

Targeted sanctions

The resolution calls on the Secretary of State to “immediately identify coup leaders, their accomplices, and enablers for consideration for targeted sanctions,” and to urge junta leaders to return immediately to the rule of law as set forth by the transitional constitution.

It also calls on international partners to join US efforts to impose targeted sanctions on the junta and other accomplices to the coup, monitor, discourage, and deter any effort by external parties to support the junta, and suspend Sudan’s participation in all regional multilateral organisations until Sudan is returned to constitutional rule.

Aid suspended

The USA has already suspended $700m in aid to Sudan immediately following the coup.US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price announced on October 26 that “the US is pausing assistance from the $700 million in emergency assistance appropriations of Economic Support Funds for Sudan. Those funds were intended to support the country’s democratic transition as we evaluate the next step for Sudan programming.”

The following day, World Bank President David Malpass announced that the World Bank Group has suspended the disbursement of all its operations in Sudan and stopped deciding on any new operations while it closely monitors and assesses the situation.

Source: Radio Dabanga