RSS Feed
September 28th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
Police said in a statement unknown gunmen had opened fire on a group of
protesters on Friday, killing four people.
Khartoum has been brimming for days with armed civilians and security
personnel carrying rifles, patrolling streets in broad daylight and manning
rooftops. Opposition activists have accused Bashir’s National Congress Party
of vandalism and of arming militias to turn the public against the
protesters.
Bashir, who seized power in a 1989 coup, has not faced the sort of Arab Spring
uprising that unseated autocratic rulers from Tunisia to Yemen since 2011,
but anger has risen over corruption and rising inflation in the vast African
country.
He has stayed in power despite rebellions, U.S. trade sanctions, an economic
crisis, an attempted coup last year and an indictment from the International
Criminal Court for war crimes. He still enjoys support from the army, his
ruling party and many business men.
The subsidy cuts have been driven by a severe financial crunch since the
secession of oil-producing South Sudan in 2011, which deprived Khartoum of
three-quarters of the crude output it relied on for state revenues and food
imports.
Amnesty International and the New York-based African Center for Justice and
Peace Studies said at least 50 people had been killed by gunshots to the
chest or head by Thursday night, citing witnesses, relatives, doctors and
journalists.
Posted in 
