Protesters dodge crackdowns before planned ‘million march’

KHARTOUM NORTH, SUDAN >> Ahead of a giant protest march planned for today in Sudan’s capital, the Sons of Shambhat, a group of men from one of the city’s most rebellious neighborhoods, wanted to discuss the best ways to avoid arrest.

Just as the group was about to gather, the meeting’s host was whisked away by the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, a paramilitary group.

Then, at a new meeting spot, four pickup trucks loaded with soldiers rolled up. The men scattered out into a maze of dirt streets and brick houses, ducking into whatever door was open.

Today could become a pivotal moment in Sudan’s six-month-old uprising that brought down longtime ruler Omar al-bashir but now is struggling against a military council that took his place.

Protest leaders are hoping to draw 1 million people into the streets — a fifth of greater Khartoum’s population. It would be the first major protest since the RSF and other security forces brutally dispersed a vast sit-in outside the military’s headquarters June 3, killing more than 130, according to protest leaders.

The date of the “million march” is infused with significance. Today is the 30th anniversary of the coup that brought Bashir to power. The protests are largely aimed at replacing the military council with civilian leaders.

“We will show them that the revolution has only just begun,” said Awab Ibrahim, 30, who normally works as a travel agent but whose house was the Sons of Shambhat’s eventual meeting spot. “We will never stop until we bring our martyrs’ dreams to life.”

Security forces are cracking down again on protest leaders.

High-profile leaders have been arrested, and Ali Madani, the Sons of Shambhat’s original host, says he was electrocuted, beaten and thrown out of a vehicle in a distant neighborhood across the Nile River.

In a speech Saturday, the RSF’S head and military council’s deputy leader, Mohamed Hamdan, commonly known as Hemedti, warned protest leaders that he would hold them accountable for any loss of life today. Despite the march’s imminence, the military council’s spokesman asked for more time to comment.

The sit-in had been the uprising’s focal point, and its demise diffused its energy across the city. At its former site, some of the revolutionary art remains though most of the walls have been painted over.

The march’s organizers are hoping that today marks a return to the level of street pressure the military council faced in April and May.

They face many obstacles.