Eight demonstrators have been killed in clashes with armed police in northern and eastern Sudan, officials say. Six people died in anti-government protests in the eastern town of Gedaref in the al-Qadarif state, leading to a state of emergency and an overnight curfew. Sudan was once one of the largest countries in Africa. It is also…
Eight demonstrators have been killed in clashes with armed police in northern and eastern Sudan, officials say.
Six people died in anti-government protests in the eastern town of Gedaref in the al-Qadarif state, leading to a state of emergency and an overnight curfew.
Background
Sudan was once one of the largest countries in Africa. It is also a region that is geographically diverse and is rich in resources such as petroleum, iron ore, copper, zinc, silver, gold, hydropower and more. But through the decades the region is plagued by problems. Since becoming politically independent in 1956, proxy wars took place between Sudan, Chad and Libya which caused instability. In the 1980s, despite there was widespread famine. The first civil war ended in 1972 but the second war began in 1983. During this period, reportedly four million were displaced and two million died. Thus, the region came to be increasingly militarized. But the worst was still yet to come.
The conflicts along with famines resulted in Darfur becoming one of the most marginalized and underdeveloped regions in Sudan. On February 2003, the militant groups, Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) began fighting the Sudanese government. They claimed that the government had actively oppressed the non-Arab population in Darfur. As a response, the government carried out a horrific ethnic cleansing campaign against the non-Arab in Darfur. There was genocide in the region and hundreds of thousands of civilians died as a result. In 2006, the UN approved a resolution to send new peacekeeping forces of 17,300 forces.
Analysis
Protests against bread and fuel price rises were also dispersed in the capital, Khartoum, and other towns.
The demonstrations began on Wednesday in Atbara, Ed-Damar and Berber, where Sudanese police fired tear gas to break up large crowds of protesters chanting anti-government slogans.
Footage on social media appeared to show protesters attacking the ruling party’s offices in Atbara, setting them alight. The military was not intervening and even appeared to be siding with the demonstrators.
“The situation in al-Qadarif has become dangerous and the protests have developed to include fires and theft and it’s now out of control,” lawmaker Mubarak al-Nur told reporters on Thursday. Sudan’s security forces have previously used deadly force to break up protests over price increases.
The Sudanese government is now expected to remove a raft of subsidies, leading to further rises. Economic conditions in Sudan have deteriorated in recent months, despite the lifting of longstanding US sanctions, with inflation at almost 70 per cent.
Some of the demonstrators called for the “fall of the regime”, a slogan that was common during the Arab Spring uprisings that swept through the region in 2011. Police said “limited” protests in Khartoum had been contained.
Anger has been rising in the country over the rising costs of bread and fuel and other economic hardships, including skyrocketing inflation and limits on bank withdrawals.
Sudan’s economy has struggled to recover from the loss of three-quarters of its oil output – its main source of foreign currency – since South Sudan seceded in 2011, keeping most of the oilfields.
The country’s economic woes have been exacerbated in the past few years, even as the United States lifted 20-year-old trade sanctions on Sudan in October 2017. Washington has kept Sudan on its list of state sponsors of terrorism, which prevents Khartoum from accessing much-needed financial aid from institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Bread prices have more than tripled since the start of this year after a government decision to stop state-funded imports of wheat.
Meanwhile, the value of the Sudanese pound has slumped by 85 per cent against the US dollar this year, while inflation soared to nearly 70 per cent in September. In recent months, he has dissolved the government, named a new central bank governor and brought in a package of reforms, but the moves have done little to improve the situation.
Assessment
Our assessment is that Sudan’s woes will continue to grow until the government enacts an effective reform program. Sudan has earlier initiated a packaged reform in 2018 but it failed to change the fortunes of the Sudanese economy. We believe that these protests may become the Arab Spring for Sudan and could result in a change in leadership.
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