By Pavan Kulkarni – Jan 19, 2022
Mass strike and civil disobedience campaigns are underway in Sudan in rejection of the coup despite violent repression by security forces
Seven more pro-democracy protesters were shot dead in Khartoum city by the security forces on Monday, January 17. Tens of thousands took to streets in cities across Sudan in rejection of the de facto rule of military generals since the military coup on October 25, 2021. Most of the deaths were caused by bullets fired to the chest, abdomen, and pelvis.
More than a hundred others have been injured by bullets as well as by tear gas canisters and stun grenades fired directly at the bodies of the protesters in the three cities of Khartoum state – the capital Khartoum city, Khartoum North, and Omdurman.
At least six of the over 70 injured protesters who are receiving treatment in El Jawda hospital are in a critical condition. Tear gas was fired in front of this hospital while the injured protesters were being transferred, Radio Dabanga reported. “Witnesses (also) reported an attack by military forces on an ambulance in Mak Nimir bridge… medical staff and a driver were brutally beaten with sticks and rifle butts.”
“Yesterday was probably the most violent repression since the coup, with the exception of November 17. It seems the security forces have turned a new page in repression,” one protester from Omdurman told Peoples Dispatch, speculating “I think all demonstrations will be met with an increased violence from now.”
At least 71 people have already been killed by the security forces since the coup and over 2,000 have been injured. Over 250 are still undergoing treatment, according to data compiled by Hadreen Organization as of January 18. As many as 24 protesters have lost limbs or other organs and seven are paralyzed.
“This is not our army and these are our enemies, and it is our duty to resist them until we win or until they rule an empty country after they kill us all. This is our pledge to the martyrs,” the Khartoum State Resistance Committees Coordination (KSRCC) said in a statement after the crackdown on January 17.
The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors (CCSD) announced the “Complete withdrawal from the army, police and security hospitals” in a statement on January 18, signed by the Sudan Central Committee of Physicians, Sudan Medical Syndicate, Committee of Consultants and Specialists, and a dentists’ association.
The statement added that its members will go on a “strike for cold cases on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays with full commitment to cover emergency, intensive and cardiac care, incubators, isolation wards, dialysis and… tumors.”
Calling on “all the revolutionaries to completely close Khartoum and erect barricades everywhere,” the KSRCC’s statement said, “Our barricades terrify them and remind them that we are the strongest and largest army in this country.”
It also called on “all professionals, employees and workers everywhere to establish their committees in the workplace, and to coordinate well between them and the resistance committees in preparation for the mass strike and the implementation of civil disobedience on the 18th and 19th.”
Mobilizations are underway for the next round of “March of Millions” on January 24. “We cannot retreat, the price of this journey was and still is our lives,” KSRCC said.
“To the revolutionaries of the world, know that we are still steadfast.. we are still confident that we will win our battle and revolution against the rotten bloody regime.”
Featured image: A funeral procession for a protester killed on January 17 was broken up by security forces on January 18. Photo: Mohanad Hamid
Pavan Kulkarni
Journalist
