Anti-gov’t protests resume in several parts of Sudan

KHARTOUM (AA): Capital Khartoum, the city of Omdurman and Sudan’s eastern Kassala State all saw renewed protests on Monday against the country’s steadily deteriorating economic condition.

According to witnesses, hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Khartoum’s Al-Azhari and Mayo districts and in the Abbasiya neighborhood of Omdurman, Sudan’s second largest city.

Demonstrators decried the government’s inability to resolve the country’s chronic financial woes; many shouted slogans calling on President Omar al-Bashir to resign.

Monday’s demonstrations were reportedly organized by the opposition-led Association of Sudanese Professionals.

Activists also shared photos online of demonstrations that erupted in Sudan’s eastern Kassala province, where a teacher was reportedly killed Saturday inside a local police station.

On Monday, President Omar al-Bashir  announced a fresh raft of measures aimed at salvaging protest-hit Sudan’s deteriorating economy.

Addressing supporters in the northern city of Al-Abyad, al-Bashir announced his decision to eliminate value-added taxes on microfinance projects.

His government, he said, also planned to reclaim land allocated earlier to investors and “reallocate it to small-and medium-sized enterprises”. Al-Bashir went on to announce that cost-plus financing at the country’s Islamic banks would be reduced to a maximum of 5 percent, down from between 12 and 15 percent previously.

Sudan’s leadership hopes that the measures will serve to calm the Sudanese street, which has been rocked by a wave of popular protest since mid-December.

Demonstrators in steadily increasing numbers decry the failure of al-Bashir and his ruling National Congress Party to remedy Sudan’s chronic socio-economic ills.

Sudanese authorities say around 30 people have been killed since the protests began, but unofficial sources put the number at closer to 50.