Since December last year, Sudanese have been agitating over the economic situation in the country. It started first as protest over the price of bread.
But that agitation has been sustained for more than four weeks now. The protests continue to spread across cities in Sudan.
The key demand from the protesters isn’t about prices of bread anymore but an end to the Omar al-Bashir regime.
So far more than thirty people have been killed with rights groups saying the death toll could even be higher.
On Thursday further protests resulted in three more deaths. Two of the dead were university students. A doctors group says one of the students was hit by a bullet directly to his chest.
The other person was tortured allegedly by security forces to death.
The ongoing protests in a sustained form appears to be the biggest threat to the three-decade rule of Omar al-Bashir.
Bashir not giving up power
Bashir has already vowed to continue as President and would not be stampeded into leaving office by the ongoing protest.
He told his supporters this month that “There’s only one road to power and that is through the ballot box. The Sudanese people will decide in 2020 who will govern them.”
The Sudanese leader already has plans to run for the presidency for the third time in elections to be held in 2020.
He has also blamed what he calls external conspirators for ongoing anti-government protests. “Sudan has many enemies and those enemies have few people among us who don’t want stability and security.
We will not allow anyone to destroy our homeland by looting and burning our properties,” Bashir said.
As the protests continue to spread on a daily basis it is not clear how long he can hold on to power.
Al-Bashir came to power in 1989 when he led a group of officers in a military coup that ousted a democratically elected government.
Since then, he has been elected three times as President in elections that have been under scrutiny for corruption.
Source: Africafeeds.com
