Sudan Feature: The Activists Who Seek an Uprising (Bayoumy/Dziadosz)

Students protest in Khartoum, 20 June 2012

---

The government denies using excessive force against protesters or carrying out torture, and dismisses the activists as a handful of agitators with little support among the public. Mainstream opposition parties say they sympathize with protesters, but have been lukewarm at best in support.

Still, a hard core of anti-Bashir activists are trying to spark a popular revolt to end his 23-year rule, devising tactics as they go to overcome the many obstacles to public dissent in the vast, ethnically-divided country.

Click to read more ...

Sudan Primer: Happy Elbow Lick Day? Activists Look to Expand Protests

The activist call for support for today's protests

---

After almost two weeks of protests in the capital Khartoum and other cities,  fostered by the regime's austerity measures, Sudan's activists hope to increase the numbers on the streets today.

The regime's security apparatus has started to flex its muscles in response. The opposition claims hundreds have been arrested so far, including bloggers, human rights activists, and members of the influential organisation Girifna. Some foreign journalists have been expelled, and there are reports of limitation and cut-off of the Internet.  In the circumstances, some protesters have been sheltering in safe houses. 

The opposition is defiant, however as the title of today's demonstration, Elbow Lick Day, testifies. It is a "tribute" to President Bashir, who said this week that it would be easier to "lick your elbow" than to remove him from power.

Sudan has flirted with joining the Arab Spring twice in the past 18 months. Whether this occasion will be the lasting spark is far from certain. However, it is likely to show that the Bashir regime is not immune from the calls for democracy and justice. 

Developments can be followed on Twitter via the hashtag #SudanRevolts.

Sudan Feature: 10 Leaders of Protest Movement Arrested (Carmichael)

A Girifna ProtestThe Sudanese National Security Forces have arrested Nagi Musa and nine other leaders of Girifna, the nonviolent people's resistance movement in Eastern Sudan.

On Wednesday, 25 January, Nagi Musa was leading a conference titled, "The Massacre in Port Sudan and the Crisis in East Sudan." Nagi Musa's conference commemorated the seventh anniversary of the massacre.

Click to read more ...