Sudan’s generals launch renewed crackdown to defeat general strike
The military regime
in Sudan has
launched a new wave of arrests and violent intimidation in an effort to
undermine opposition plans for a widespread campaign of civil disobedience. Pro-reform groups
warned of a “frenzied campaign launched by the military junta to arrest
political activists and revolutionaries” ahead of a general strike that started
on Sunday. Professionals,
including bankers, doctors, air traffic control staff, pilots, electrical
engineers and economists, have been targeted by intelligence services in what the
Sudanese Professionals Association, one of the main opposition groups, said was
an “obvious attempt” to break the strike.
“In the face of these
repressive developments, we call upon the workers in the private and public
sectors to strictly adhere to the [campaign] of civil disobedience and the
general strike. These peaceful means are a way to cherish the blood of the
martyrs [and] protect the lives of colleagues,” the group said in a statement.
More than 120 people
died and hundreds were injured when paramilitaries attacked a protest camp in
the centre of Khartoum on Monday. Activists say that the
total number of people detained by security services in recent days is unclear,
but is “probably in the hundreds”.
There were reports of
sporadic violence on Sunday morning as shops, banks, offices and businesses
shut on the first day of the civil disobedience. Two deaths were
reported in the Khartoum district of Bahri after a shooting. In the
neighbouring city of Omdurman, roads are blocked by makeshift barricades.
Though security forced appeared to have been withdrawn from some of the
streets, tensions remained among fears of further attacks... read more:
