The 2019–2022 Sudanese protests were street protests in Sudan which began in mid-September 2019, during Sudan's transition to democracy, about issues which included the nomination of a new Chief Justice and Attorney General, the killing of civilians by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the toxic effects of cyanide and mercury from gold mining in Northern state and South Kordofan, opposition to a state governor in el-Gadarif and to show trials of Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) coordinators, and advocating the dismissal of previous-government officials in Red Sea, White Nile, and South Darfur. The protests follow the Sudanese Revolution's street protests and civil disobedience of the early September 2019 transfer of executive power to the country's Sovereignty Council, civilian prime minister Abdalla Hamdok, and his cabinet of ministers. Hamdok described the 39-month transition period as defined by the aims of the revolution.
Background
Eight months of street protests and sustained civil disobedience in Sudan, which began on 19 December 2018, led to a political agreement and Draft Constitutional Charter defining a 39-month political transition period beginning in September 2019 and formally transferring executive power to the Sovereignty Council of Sudan, civilian prime minister Abdalla Hamdok, and his cabinet of ministers. Gilbert Achcar described the transition period as the fourth phase of the revolution. People used social media applications such as Facebook and Telegram to help organize the protests.
Timeline
September 2019
Two thousand protesters in Khartoum and other cities on 12 September and 20,000 protestors in Khartoum, Wad Madani, and Port Sudan the following week called for Abdelgadir Mohamed Ahmed to be appointed Chief Justice and Mohamed el-Hafiz attorney general, for the creation of a Khartoum massacre investigation commission, and for senior members of the previous government to be tried in Sudanese courts or extradited to the International Criminal Court investigation in Darfur. Displaced people protested in Mershing, South Darfur on 15–16 September and in Nyala on 17 September after armed men wearing Rapid Support Forces (RSF) uniforms killed University of Zalingei student Munir Hamid, Adam Mohamed, Hashim Karameldin, and Radwan Abdelrahman. Protestors considered the transition government responsible for the deaths, and called for "the militias" to be disarmed.
On 17 September, residents of Simit and other villages in Northern State protested against the construction of a new mine by the Hamid Mining Company because of the risk of pollution from mercury and cyanide used during extraction. That day in Khartoum, people from South Kordofan called for mining to be suspended (ordered by the governor of South Kordofan, but disobeyed by some mining companies). Protestors displayed photographs of victims of the cyanide used in mining and called for local companies (including El Sunut, al-Junaidalso known as Juneidand Abarsi) and international companies to stop mining.
On 18 and 19 September, the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), the Sudanese resistance committees, government employees, and local residents organised protests in el-Gadarif calling for the removal of the state governor because of the governor's "anti-revolutionary position" and the failure of government-controlled radio and television to report about flood victims and activities of the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC). On those days, the SPA also protested in front of courts in Geneina against the trials of eight SPA coordinators, which they considered show trials punishing SPA members for organising protests and a strike. Teachers and other public servants in Red Sea called on 18 September for senior officials of the previous government to be dismissed.
Engineers and other workers in the White Nile Sugar Workers Union in White Nile called on 17 September for officials of the previous government to be dismissed. Employers of the protestors dismissed three of the engineers and investigated others, which the protestors' committee (the Temporal Committee for the Restoration of the White Nile Sugar Workers Union) considered retaliatory.
On 22 September, Sudanese police used tear gas against students protesting in Nyala, South Darfur against bread shortages and transport failures and calling for the state governor to be dismissed. The FFC condemned the "use of tear gas and live bullets against peaceful protestors", calling for the appointment of civilian governors and an immediate investigation of police actions.
Two thousand people demonstrated in front of the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Egyptian Embassy in Khartoum on 26 September in support of Waleed Abdelrahman Hassan (also known as Walid Abdulrahman), a Sudanese student arrested in Cairo for alleged participation in the 21 September Egyptian street protests. The SPA called for Abdelrahman Hassan to be allowed to contact his family and choose a lawyer, without torture or coercion. Abdelrahman Hassan's friends and relatives said that an apparent confession broadcast by MBC Masr on 26 September in which he declared support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt was forced; Abdelrahman Hassan had long opposed Islamists in Sudan under the Omar al-Bashir government (for which he was arrested in 2013 and 2018) and during the Sudanese Revolution. Mohammed Saleh, his friend, described the idea of Hassan supporting the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood as "unbelievable". The SPA called the video broadcast "shameful": "We stress here that the era when Sudanese citizens were humiliated inside or outside their country has gone and will never return." Abdelrahman Hassan was freed on 2 October.
October 2019 On 13 October, protestors in el-Hilaliya, Gezira began a sit-in calling for the administrator of el-Hilaliya to be dismissed, for the security committee to be dissolved, and for improvements in education, health care, electricity and the environment. The administrator was dismissed on 19 October. The week-long sit-in continued on 20 October, with protestors considering a move to the state capital (Wad Madani) if their demands were not met.
On 18 October, protests against the use of cyanide and other toxic chemicals in gold mining took place in Talodi. Protestors called for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to stop guarding the mining plants, for the amir of Talodi to be dismissed, and for improved Talodi Hospital services. The RSF struck protest supporter Hussein Noureljalil in the head with rifle butts; army forces rescued Noureljalil and brought him to Talodi Hospital.
On 21 October, 20,000 people in Khartoum's Freedom Square and Sudanese towns called for the National Congress Party (NCP, which dominated politics during the al-Bashir government) to be dissolved and its senior members tried in court. There were no reports of casualties. Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok gave a speech commemorating the 55th anniversary of the 1964 uprising in which he said, "the revolution needs greater efforts to be completed and achieve its goals"; Hamdok had fired several top bureaucrats from al-Bashir's government the previous week. The 21 October protestors also called for a full, transparent investigation of the 3 June Khartoum massacre, including of members of the civilian-military Sovereignty Council who were formerly members of the Transitional Military Council.
November 2019 On 11 November, Suakin residents blocked the main road between Port Sudan and Tokar in protest against a week of electricity shutdowns. In Abu Naama, Sennar that day, activists burnt the offices, fuel depots, tractors and factories of the Kanaf Abu Naama project in protest against carcinogens. Security services detained two residents.
Nyala University students demonstrated in front of local administrative offices that day to protest against the lack of public transport, and called for university staff vehicles to help transport students. In Abu Ushar, Gezira, demonstrators burnt tyres and blocked a major highway to protest a flour shortage and the deterioration of other services. Jaafar Mohamedein of the Kanabi Congress, representing the Kanabi (seasonal workers recruited from Darfur and elsewhere in western Sudan who were settled in Gezira, protested against racism by government and the local population at a Khartoum meeting with Mohamed Mahala, representing Sovereignty Council member Mohammed al-Ta'ishi and Sudan Liberation Movement/Army-Minni Minnawi members. Mohamedein called for the Kanabi to be allowed to participate in the political process and for the creation of a Sovereignty Council commission to uphold their rights.
December 2019 Demonstrators in Tawila, North Darfur, protested on 11 December against armed attacks by camel and cattle herders on farmers and people living in camps for those displaced by the war in Darfur. Two hundred demonstrators protested in West Darfur two days later against corruption and shortages of bread and fuel, calling for the state governor to be dismissed.
On 17 December, students at the University of Ed Daein in East Darfur protested against the drowning of a student in a groundwater tank, accusing the al-Bashir-era Student Support and Welfare Fund of negligence. Farmers in North Darfur blocked roads, protesting against the theft and destruction of crops by "outlaws".
January 2020 Two thousand women demonstrated in Khartoum on 2 January, marching to Prime Minister Hamdok's office and submitting a petition signed by 46 citizens' groups and 13 political parties calling for Sudan to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. The women said that a list of nominees for state governor contains men only, and they called for laws against female genital mutilation and child marriage.
Agents of the former National Intelligence and Security Service rebelled on 15 January, clashing violently with the forces of their former employer (the General Intelligence Service) in Khartoum. According to Al Jazeera, two soldiers were killed and four were wounded. Sovereignty Council member Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo attributed responsibility to former intelligence chief Salah Gosh. Gosh allegedly escaped to Egypt after Bashir's government was overthrown by Sudanese armed forces, but Egyptian authorities did not confirm Gosh's location.
Ethiopian refugees rallied in front of UN Refugee Agency buildings in Khartoum on 27 January, saying that their rights as refugees were not recognised and they could not acquire a nationality by naturalisation or resettlement. Twenty demonstrators in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Khartoum the following day called for the return of relatives involuntarily deployed to Libya and Yemen as mercenaries in the Second Libyan Civil War and Yemeni civil wars. The demonstrators said that their relatives were deceived by Black Shield, an Emirati company which led them to believe that they would be employed as security guards in the UAE. The victims' families also protested outside the Emirati embassy in Khartoum that day. About 50 young men returned from Libya that day and joined the protests outside the UAE embassy. On 31 January, a day after Sudanese Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Badawi announced an 18-month plan to reduce fuel subsidies, the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) called for a "million-man march" in Khartoum as an "expression of national unity" against government policies.
February 2020