Sudan Protests IV

Wednesday morning and the fourth day of protests in Khartoum started with a sand storm and the NISS arrests of activists Najla Sid Ahmed and Mohd Hassan Alim (Boshi) at 7 AM. Their whereabouts unknown. Najla's house was raided and Boshi's mother was injured, Girifna reports. AFP correspondent Simon Martelli, however, was released after having spent a day in custody for covering the demonstrations.

Protests have been reported at University of Khartoum's medical campus at Al Qasr Avenue, Blue Nile University in Sinnar, Jumhoreya street (video below) and Burri.

Update: Apart from other universities in Khartoum, others outside of the capital have joined the protests; Shendi, Obeid and Gezira are among these. In all protests, NCP students (National Congress Party) have joined the security forces with metal rods, machetes, knives and swords, Girifna says. More and more civilians are reported to join the students in the protests.

During early evening, security forces arrested Dr. Kamil Idris, a former presidential candidate and a human rights activist.

Update: Protesters are gathering at an Umma party in Omdurman, where anti-government chants and the word "thawra" (revolution) can be heard. Najla Sid Ahmed is reported to have been released and have joined the party where she bravely continues to document events.

Last update for today: Reports of the resignation of government of state of Khartoum. Professor Mamoun Himida put forth the resignation letter saying that they can't continue due to the government's austerity measures. More about this tomorrow.

More on the story here:

- New York Times,  Sudan: Protests Erupt Over Austerity Measures

- Bloomberg (Salma El Wardany, @s_elwardany), Sudanese Police Fire Tear Gas On Fourth Day Of Protests

- Reuters, Police, protesters clash again in Sudanese capital

- IRIN Africa, SUDAN: Austerity package sparks protests

- Aljazeera: Police clash with protesters in Sudan capital 

- US Department of State, Crackdown on Demonstrators in Sudan
- Girifna Media, Sudan Revolts: a situation analysis

Sudan Protests III

Tuesday morning, protests started at Ahlia University in Omdurman, where protesters clashed with police and National Congress Party (NCP) students, who fired tear gas and assaulted unarmed protesters with weapons. The campus was evacuated. Update: At the Faculty of Agriculture in Shambat (Khartoum North) and Faculty of Education (Omdurman), two branches of University of Khartoum, protests broke out and faced similar treatment as students in Ahlia University. Some 24 students were reported arrested from Shambat and taken to a police station where they were released on bail later on. For the third time in two days, police raided and surrounded the female dorms in University of Khartoum. Tear gas was fired against the students.

Protests also broke out in Al-Kalakla Al-Gubba in Khartoum and Al-Kadaro Complex of Juba University in Khartoum North, as well as Atbara market, Shendi and Atbara. Update: During early evening, protests started in Omdurman Market. Police used tear gas and tried to disperse the protesters. Some were arrested.

Activists have reported unprecedented violence by the police. No deaths have been reported so far.

Media has been largely censured  and the dailies Al-Ahdath, Al-Watan and Al-Jarida were ordered by the NISS not to distribute their Sunday prints on Sunday without given a reason. Same thing happened yesterday. The weekly Al-Midan (a weekly by the opposition Sudanese Communist Party) has been ordered not to publish for a month. "They want to kick us out of the market. It is a bad thing for the freedom of expression in Sudan," Al-Jarida's editor-in-chief, Osman Shinger, told AFP.

But Sudanese students have not been beaten down by the censorship and took their protests against austerity, high costs of living and the end of the president Omar al-Bashir's reign online. News has been spread mainly on Twitter.

AFP bureau chief in Sudan, Simon Martelli was arrested this morning while covering the protests at Sudan University. This is what he wrote yesterday. Martelli, who is British, was brought to an unknown location. The embassy wasn't notified.

@girifna calls on all citizens of Sudan to take to the streets on June 30^th (the day that president Bashir took power 23 years ago) and celebrate the final anniversary of NCP's reign.

Update: The activists that were arrested at HAQ yesterday were released at 3 AM this morning.

The video shows today's protests at the South section of Sudan University. The riot police are waiting for the students to come out.

Follow #SudanRevolt on Twitter for updated information.

Read more about the situation:
- Al-Arabiya, Protesters, Sudan police clash over spending cuts
- Reuters, Protests erupt as Sudan's Bashir unveils austerity plan (updated version)
- Reuters, Sudan to tax more, cut subsidies to plug deficit
- Al-Jazeera [VIDEO], News - 3d day of protests in Khartoum, al-Arabi (in Arabic)
- Al-Jazeera, Students lead #SudanRevolts against austerity

- AhramOnline, Sudan protesters scuffle with police for third day: Witness

Sudan Protests II

Students at the University of Khartoum entered the second day of demonstrations, chanting "people want the regime down" and social media has run warm while waiting to see if this is "the real deal" or not. This is not the first time (and probably not the last) that students demonstrate against the government. Last December authorities closed down Khartoum University temporarily after more than a week of protests against the government.

The inflation in the country is currently running at 30 percent, but some economists claim it can be as high as 40, and the Sudanese people have been building up their anger against rising food prices and the government's plans to cut fuel subsidies.

President Omar Hassan al-Bashir addressed parliament around lunch, Monday, saying that the government had decided to "raise taxation and remove fuel subsidies "step by step." Furthermore, hundreds of federal and state positions will be axed and officials's salaries will be cut. Needless to say, people weren't too happy about the announcement. More on the announcement here.

Riot police has continued to fire tear gas and use batons against the protesters. There has been reports of both rubber bullets and live ammunition being fired, but the reports are yet unconfirmed. Students answered the brutality by throwing stones at the police and an unconfirmed number of protesters have been detained and taken away in trucks to police stations. Some claim they've been brought to torture chambers. As always with social media, it's difficult to know what's fact and what is rumors.

The security presence has been heavy all over the city centre and while the students at Khartoum University have had a hard time during the day (police has raided the female dorms at the campus) tweets now claim that Omdurman Ahliya University (link currently down) has joined the protests during the afternoon and that protesters are cutting off a road (video) near the Ministry of Defence.

Update: In early evening 30-40 youths have reportedly been beaten and arrested as they attended a meeting at the headquarters of New Democratic Forces Movement (HAQ) in Khartoum 2. The young activists, may of them Girifna members, were taken into trucks owned by the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) and there whereabouts are unknown at the moment. Tweeps are calling for lawyers to help out.

Twitter:

@girifna

@MimzicalMimz 

@S_Elwardany

@Shamarat

#السودان_ينتفض

Photo from Twitter.

Sudan Protests I

 

I'm currently preparing myself for another round of intense blogging. Here's why:

Small demonstrations have been going on in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, for well over a year now, but now it seems to get serious as a couple of hundered students at the University of Khartoum started a demonstration on campus against high food prices. The university's website seems to be down at the moment, not sure if that has anything to do with this though.

Riot police met the protesters with tear gas and batons and the demonstration spread to city central.

Tweets and Facebook statuses claim that the situation is escalating and that a number of seriously hurt people have been brought to hospital. People are encuraging each other to hit the streets and spread information.

Are you in Khartoum at the moment? Me and the rest of the world wants to hear your stories!

More to come.

Our Story Published

A couple of weeks ago a journalist contacted us and asked if we would be interested in getting interviewed and photographed for their Valentine's Day special. I thought it would be a short article in some insertion that few people would read and NOT that my double chin would be front page material!

Anyways, our story was beautifully put together and the photos were ok (I rarely admit that about photos of myself) and I can't think of a nicer contribution to our life and love today. Read the article here in Swedish if you're interested!

How Everything Changed

On November 27th, our beautiful son was born. It was without a doubt the biggest, life altering happening of my life. You can pretend and keep telling yourself that you're aware and prepared for what is to come, but it's not until the moment when you have that tiny, slimy person on your chest that you understand exactily how much everything has changed - just like that.

Gone are the days of worrying about yourself and gone are the nights of good sleep. All replaced by this enormous, undescribable joy and love for the fragile person that you helped give life to. Suddenly you're no longer just you, you're now a parent; completely and fully responsible for the safety and wellbeing of another person; a person that will (hopefully) love you unconditionally and put all his faith and trust in you. You're supposed to be that person that knows everything, can solve any problem and lead you in the right direction. It's not an easy task and certainly not something to take lightly.

The delivery was no an easy one and I wish I could say that it was the most wonderful experience in my life, like so many mothers seem to do. But (without revealing too scary details) after hours of excrutionating pain, the doctor finally decided to help out by using a vacuum extractor while 2-3 nurses were so kind and pressed my belly since the baby's heart started to slow down. A few minutes later a beautiful boy was born. I remember I had to ask "is that my son?" to understand that it was finally over.

Two months later I finally find the time and ability to focus enough to write this down. My son (I still find it strange and wierd to write/say "my son") is sleeping in my arms and my wonderful husband is cooking up some Sudanese fish dish in the kitchen. It's amazing to have your own family. Still hard to believe, but amazing.

My son. He is the love of my life and my greatest accomplishment. I'll give everything I have and more to make sure he always feels loved and safe.

Pregnant - Week 27

Week 26+2

Lacking the strength and committment to write about more serious matters, I thought I'd take a break and give a short update about the coming baby. I'm now 27 full weeks pregnant (or pregnant in week 28 as we say here in Sweden) and "The Bean" is growing and kicking along as it should. People that see me now think that I'll give birth in a month or so, or that I'm actually carrying twins. There's still only one little creature in there though, which is due on November 22nd.

After having a couple of months of feeling pretty much fabulous, other pregnancy signs have started to appear lately. I'm experiencing pretty bad pelvic pains (could be a blocked sciatic nerve too) when I've been standing up for a long time or walking a lot, which makes it impossible to walk like a normal human being, or even get out of bed sometimes. It feels like a giant needle very suddenly stabbing my buttocks which causes my leg to fold and me to loose balance (and let out a row of not so flattering curses). So far I've been lucky to have something to grab each time it's happened. The charming stomach acids have returned with all its might too.

My thyroid gland is overproducing a bit, so I'll be back at maternity centre in a couple of weeks for more tests. Since I'm already diagnozed with Hashimoto's Disease, it's probably a good idea to keep checking it once in a while.

I'm still working and enjoy it like no other work I've had before. I'm actually looking forward to each spell of work. I really hope that I'll be able to work for yet another few weeks before the baby is due, and even more that I can continue once I've been home on maternity leave for a few months. I feel really lucky and privileged to be in this line of work and wouldn't mind one bit to continue for a long time.

The picture is taken last week.