University professors voice support to Sudan protesters as new marches announced for Thursday
January 30, 2019 (KHARTOUM) – Over three hundred professors and lecturers at the University of Khartoum held set-in support of the nationwide protests and called on President Omer al-Bashir to step down.
Since 19 December 2018, Sudanese people have continued to take to the street calling on President Omer al-Bashir to leave. Despite the bloody crackdown by the security forces and the death of 30 people according to the government, the organisers of the nationwide protests say resolved to achieve peaceful change.
“University of Khartoum professors and (lecturer) held a sit-in inside the campus on Wednesday 30 January at 10 am in support of the protest movement in the Sudanese street and to denounce the killing of demonstrators and the excessive use of violence against them,” reads a short statement released on their page at FaceBook.
The sit-in comes after an initiative they launched recently calling for the formation of a transitional government to achieve political and economic reforms before to hold free and fair elections in a democratic regime.
Mamduh Mohamed al-Hassan, a spokesperson for the group told the AFP that over 300 professors and lecturers of the university took part in the protest.
Several professors spoke during the sit-in and denounced the rampant corruption and the government failure to manage the resource of the country.
One of the professors criticised a-Bashir without naming him saying his mismanagement of the country resources led him to travel to “tiny countries” with the size of a district in Khartoum State seeking for financial assistance.
The University of Khartoum has always played a leading role in the two previous uprisings that ended the rule of General Ibrahim Aboud in 1964 and General Gaafar Nimeiri in 1985.
For its part, the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) and its allied opposition forces renewed calls for demonstrations dubbed the “Largest Crawl” on Thursday in the capital and other states.
The SPA which communicates through the social media with the street released on Wednesday a statement indicating the starting points of the processions in Khartoum and Omdurman towards the presidential palace. Also, it called for parallel protests in some neighbourhoods known for their strong interaction, including Berri in Khartoum, Shambat and Kaddarou in Khartoum.
The continuation of the nationwide movement and its resilience to the bloody repression is polarizing more and more the street.
The support of the Sudanese army leadership to al-Bashir on Wednesday may trigger a reaction from junior and medium ranking officers, say analysts. Also, it is agreed that the move will not help to defuse the political tension in the country.
(ST)