Five years after Al Bashir overthrow, ‘flame of Sudan revolution will not be extinguished’

Report: Suleiman Siri

April 6, marking five years after the revolutionary sit-in was set up in front of the Central Command of the Sudanese Armed Forces in downtown Khartoum in 2019, did not pass as an ordinary day for the Sudanese. Social media activists called for everyone to interact through their pages, under the slogan “This Country Belongs to Us” on Saturday at 19:00 Sudanese time, “to have a digital protest march that circumnavigates the whole world”.

According to the invitation, the organisers of the campaign wanted to send a message saying that “the month of April remains in the Sudanese conscience”.

They consider the anniversary of the setting up of the sit-in in front of the Army Command on April 6, 2019, followed by the ousting of President Omar Al Bashir five days later “an extension of the Sudanese uprising of April 6, 1985 [against President Jaafar El Nimeiri] and a source of inspiration for the new generation of revolutionaries.

“It is an expression of adherence to the peacefulness of the revolution and a rejection of violence and the ways in which totalitarian and military regimes deal with the right of the people to express their rights. We will return to the slogan of the revolution: freedom, peace, and justice.”

Youth leader Abubakr Feisal told Radio Dabanga that “the aim of circulating the post ‘This country belongs to us’ accompanied by the hashtag ‘April 6 the Great’ is a reminder that the flame of the revolution will not be extinguished”.

Given the difficulty of organising marches on April 6, as has been the custom in recent years, “we decided to launch a ‘million ambassadors campaign’, in which all revolutionaries would participate with the hashtag ‘April 6 the Great’ and a picture of the Atbara train”.

On June 30, 1989, Lt Gen Omar Al Bashir seized power in a military coup d’état, heralding 30 years of dictatorship that would last until his own overthrow, again by a military coup d’état, in 2019, which led to the formation of a civilian government in September 2019.

* A train carrying members and supporters of Sudan’s opposition Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) arrived in Khartoum on 17 August 17, 2019, greeted by throngs of ecstatic crowds. As the train plied its way across Khartoum state to arrive in the centre of the city, cheering crowds lined the rails. Members of the FFC in River Nile state had announced they would travel by train from Atbara to Khartoum to attend the ceremonial signing of the agreement between the Transitional Military Council (TMC) and the FFC.