Hundreds of Khartoum teachers strike across 100 schools over unpaid salaries

May 31, Khartoum — Hundreds of teachers across Khartoum state went on strike on Sunday, paralysing approximately 100 schools in the Jabal Awliya, East Nile, and Greater Omdurman areas in protest over unpaid salaries, accumulated arrears, low wages, and deteriorating living conditions.

Sami al-Baqer, official spokesman for the Sudanese Teachers Committee, told Sudan Tribune that the strike is part of an ongoing movement demanding better economic and professional conditions and the payment of long-overdue financial entitlements.

The committee said in a statement that the strike reflects growing frustration among teachers over what it described as the authorities’ persistent disregard for their demands, and their failure to pay accumulated salaries, allowances, bonuses, and other entitlements. Teachers had entered the Eid al-Adha holiday without receiving their salaries or any financial dues, the statement said.

The committee demanded that the minimum wage be raised from 12,000 to 216,000 Sudanese pounds, that all salary arrears be settled, that due promotions be implemented, and that policies of forced leave and unjust dismissal be ended. It also called on the state to increase education spending and stop passing additional financial burdens onto families.

“The stability of the educational process requires improving the conditions of teachers and ensuring a dignified life for them,” the committee said, describing the crisis as the product of years of neglect, marginalisation, and deteriorating working conditions in the education sector.

The committee pledged to continue and escalate the movement until its demands are met, warning that the sustainability of education depends on resolving teachers’ grievances.

Sudan has seen a growing wave of teacher protests in recent months across multiple states — including Kassala, Northern State, White Nile, and Gezira — driven by delayed salaries, accumulated arrears, and worsening economic conditions linked to the ongoing war.