More Than 100 Pro-Democracy Protestors Killed In Resistance In Sudan

Source: – / Getty

The Death Toll Continues To Rise As Pro-Democracy Protestors Fight For Civilian Rule Of The Government In Sudan

Atrocious acts of violence have gone down in Sudan sparking outrage around the world.

According to MTV News, on Sunday, June 9 — the first day of the Sudanese work week — many stores in the Sudanese capital city Khartoum were boarded up. A mass general strike was being carried out after four people were murdered at the hands of Sudanese security forces over the weekend. This is the latest in a wave of violence that peaked last Monday when security forces violently raided a camp were pro-democracy protestors had been holding a sit-in. 

The sweep left over 100 people dead, according to the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors (CCSD), and around 40 bodies were pulled from the Nile River in Khartoum after the raid. Tents were also burned down and multiple instances of sexual assault were reported according to The New York Times. The general strike this Sunday was in response to the continuing violence.

The civil disobedience from protestors are apart of an ongoing struggle for civilians to gain control of the nation’s government. Since April, the Transitional Military Council (TMC) has been in power and pro-democracy protesters have been trying to come to an agreement about a new government after President Omar al-Bashir was overthrown in April.

Al-Bashir seized power in 1989 when Sudan was in the middle of a 21-year civil war. He ended the conflict in 2005, but still enacted more violence with a genocide in Darfur. The ongoing deaths, which began in 2003, have caused al-Bashir to face longstanding charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

After sitting as president of Sudan for more than three decades, al-Bashir was finally ousted  on April 11, 2019 after anti-government demonstrations peaked in late 2018. Many Sudanese people couldn’t afford to buy food, which eventually led to the people ousting him.

Despite al-Bashir being out of office, it wasn’t necessarily the pro-democracy protestors that got him out — it was members of his own regime who persuaded him. His own generals locked him up and then took over the country as the TMC, promising free elections after a transitional period.

Clearly, this hasn’t happened yet and protestors carried out relatively peaceful demonstrations for two months before things started turning violent in June.

Many young people are leading the cause and they’re not giving up, despite the devastating violence on June 3 and the days that followed.

News about the violence is continuing to spread with artists like Rihanna and Ava DuVernay sharing posts.

Many people are also saying that because the protestors are mostly Black, Muslim and African the news isn’t getting as much attention as it should be.

Smh. Typical.

Many activists are calling for people to spread the message as resistance in Sudan continues.