In the ten days following September 23rd, Sudan has witnessed the largest anti-government protests since the military coup that brought its president Omar Al-Bashir to power in 1989. Thousands of Sudanese protesters took to the streets chanting "freedom" and renewing calls for their autocratic ruler to stand down. The unrest, sparked off by fuel price hikes, began in the city of Wad Madani, south of Khartoum, but quickly spread to at least nine districts in Khartoum and seven cities across the country. To add to the insult, only three days before the lifting of fuel subsidies, Mr. Bashir and his finance minister boasted that Sudanese people were introduced to “Pizza”, “Hot dogs”, and “Luxury housing” under his tenure! And, once the protests erupted, Omar Al Bashir and his government called the demonstrators “saboteurs”, “bandits and “traitors”. The police and security services responded to the demonstrations with live ammunitions, and according to Amnesty International, killed more than 200 protesters. Voices of the Middle East and North Africa speaks with Khalid Medani, associate professor of political science and Islamic studies at McGill University about the root causes of the recent protests.
To see photos of the protests in Sudan, please visit Girifna media`s flicker page @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/girifna/with/10185803314/