Sudan braces for ‘earthquake of April 6’ rallies against military rule

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Sudan’s powerful pro-democracy movement called on supporters in the capital and across the country to rally against military rule on Wednesday, asking protesters not to leave the streets before the ruling generals are forced out.

The rallies, named “the earthquake of April 6” by the groups, were expected to be harshly dealt with by security forces, who closed Khartoum’s Nile bridges on Tuesday night and beefed up their presence around locations where the protesters are likely to assemble, such as the Republican Palace and the army headquarters.

There was widespread speculation that authorities would cut internet and telephone services on Wednesday, to frustrate efforts by the protest organisers to co-ordinate.

The government declared Wednesday a national holiday.

But the Resistance Committees, the grass roots pro-democracy group leading the near-daily protests against military rule since army chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan seized power last October, was defiant.

“The earthquake of April 6 will come as a spear in the chest of the tyrants and a giant leap towards the change we aspire to,” representatives of the Resistance Committees told crew.

“We enter this battle while the change the revolutionaries dream has drawn closer,” they said.

“The people will come out tomorrow on the earthquake of April 6 and not return home until the dawn of eternal salvation arrives.”

Another powerful pro-democracy group, the Sudanese Professionals’ Association, said in a statement that supporters of dictator Omar Al Bashir, ousted in 2019, planned a stage against public and state installations to give security forces justification to use of excessive force against the protesters on Wednesday.

The rallies mark an uprising in 1985 that toppled the 16-year rule of military dictator Jaafar Al Nimeiri and also the start of a sit-in outside the army headquarters in 2019 calling for the removal of Al Bashir.

A man flashes the victory sign during a protest in Khartoum to denounce the October 2021 military coup in Sudan. AP

Army generals removed Al Bashir on April 11 that year, but the protesters demanded that the military hand over power to civilians. On June 3, security forces violently broke up the sit-in, killing more than 100 protesters.

Two months later, the pro-democracy movement and the military reached a transitional power-sharing deal, which Gen Al Burhan discarded when he seized power only weeks before he was to hand over to a civilian his de facto head of state position.

An investigation into the break-up of the sit-in has yet to publish its findings more than two years after it began its work. Also, little is known about the fate of investigations ordered by Gen Al Burhan into the killing of the protesters since his takeover and alleged sexual assault by security forces of female protesters.

At least 92 protesters have been killed and about 3,000 injured since the coup in a wide crackdown against the opposition that includes arbitrary detentions and forced disappearances of locality.

The large Umma party, meanwhile, joined the pro-democracy groups in calling for the Sudanese to rally on Wednesday. “There is no excuse for anyone who refrains from taking part in the rallies of national salvation,” it said.

Sudan’s military leader Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan. AFP

Gen Al Burhan’s October 25 coup derailed Sudan’s democratic transition and plunged the country into its worst economic crisis in the decades.

Western powers suspended aid to Sudan worth hundreds of millions of dollars and shelved a debt forgiveness programme.

The UN says the number of people in Sudan facing extreme hunger will double to 18 million by September and warns the country is headed towards chaos if the political crisis roiling it since the coup is not swiftly addressed.

Gen Al Burhan who has said he will only hand over power to an elected government, suggested that the pro-democracy movement was a tool in the hands of Sudan’s foreign “enemies”, and equated with treason criticism of the military.

His second-in-command, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has accused anti-military named of being agents on the payroll of foreign embassies.

Meanwhile, most Sudanese are unable to make ends meet in the face of rising prices of essential food items and fuel.

The value of the pound has also plummeted against the US dollar and power outages have become more frequent at a time of year when the temperature routinely hovers above 40°C.

Updated: April 06, 2022, 7:24 AM

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