Sudan unrest disrupts Bashir’s push for vital financial support
KHARTOUM: Short of time to save his sinking economy, Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir boarded a Russian jet on Dec 17 and became the first Arab leader to visit Damascus since 2011, renewing what has been seen as a push for the financial help he needs to survive.
Events at home soon caught up with him.
Two days later, demonstrators angered by bread price rises torched the ruling party headquarters in the city of Atbara, setting off two weeks of protests that quickly spread across the country, with crowds calling on Bashir to step down.
The protests are the most sustained challenge to Bashir since he took power in an Islamistbacked coup nearly 30 years ago, more widespread and longerlasting than bouts of unrest in September 2013 and January 2018.
They risk propelling Sudan deeper into crisis, upending Bashir’s attempt to stave off financialcollapseanddestabilising a country beset by simmering internal conflicts that straddles Africa and the Middle East.
“What we are witnessing today is the second and stronger wave of the protests that swept Sudan in September 2013.
Frustration with the rising cost of living has been building up and is now boiling over again,” said independent analyst Muhammad Osman.
Officials have acknowledged 19 deaths in the demonstrations.
Amnesty International said last week it had credible reports that 37 protesters had been shot dead.
“Bashir and his inner circle will not go down without a fight,” said Osman.
Bashir has survived as one of the region’s longest serving leaders, riding out 20 years of US sanctions and shrugging off an indictment by the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur.
The protests come as the 75year-old has been pushing to shore up his position economically as well as politically, lobbying to be removed from the list of countries, along with Syria, Iran and North Korea, that the US considers state sponsors of terrorism.
That listing has prevented an influx of investment and financial aid that Sudan was hoping for when the US lifted sanctions October 2017, according to economists. — Reuters