After more than two months of near-daily protests in Khartoum and across Sudan, President Omar al-Bashir announced on the evening of February 22 a\u00a0year-long state of emergency and dissolved the government. He postponed constitutional amendments allowing him to run for office again in 2020\u00a0but did not offer to step down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the following days, al-Bashir issued additional\u00a0decrees outlawing protests, setting up emergency courts, and appointed loyal military men in key roles. Significantly, he appointed Ahmed Haroun, former governor of Northern Kordofan, as acting head of the ruling National Congress Party. Both Haroun and al-Bashir are wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged atrocity crimes in Darfur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the new government was purportedly established to help address\u00a0Sudan\u2019s economic crisis and appease critics, it has not ended the protests, nor the government\u2019s abusive response. On the night of al-Bashir\u2019s announcement, security forces raided a doctors\u2019 residence in Khartoum, looted property, and arrested more than 50 people, according to the independent\u00a0doctor\u2019s syndicate. Two days later, they raided the University of Medical Studies and Technology, shot tear gas into the building, and\u00a0beat and arrested students. On February 25, government forces shot at protesters, injuring three, the syndicate said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such reports are hardly a surprise. Since protests started in mid-December, security forces have consistently\u00a0used excessive force, shooting live bullets and tear gas canisters at protesters, killing and injuring protesters, violently raiding homes, and brutally beating protesters and detainees. Many opposition figures, rights defenders, and activists are languishing in national security detention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now al-Bashir\u2019s emergency courts are another tool for repression. Hastily-formed courts set up by chief justice Abdelmajid Idris on February 25 have convicted\u00a0hundreds of people\u00a0in summary trials \u2013 for crimes such as protesting and disseminating anti-government information \u2013 without due process or access to lawyers in many cases, witnesses told us. Sentences range between\u00a0fines up to seven years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Troika countries and Canada\u00a0warned that \u201creturn to military rule does not create a conducive environment for a renewed political dialogue or credible elections\u201d and the European Union warned the increased role of the military creates \u201ca permissive climate for the security services to act with impunity against peaceful protesters.\u201d\u00a0US Congress\u00a0members have called on the US to abandon its efforts to normalize relations with Sudan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These governments should now go a step further, including by taking action at the United Nations Human Rights Council to authorize an independent investigation into all the killings and abuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Source: Human Rights Watch<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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After more than two months of near-daily protests in Khartoum and across Sudan, President Omar al-Bashir announced on the evening of February 22 a\u00a0year-long state of emergency and dissolved the government. He postponed constitutional amendments allowing him to run for office again in 2020\u00a0but did not offer to step down. In the following days, al-Bashir issued additional\u00a0decrees outlawing protests, setting… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3269"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3271,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3269\/revisions\/3271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}