Sudan opposition ‘escalate revolution’, call general strike

The Alliance for Freedom and Change (AFC), a coalition of Sudan’s major opposition movements including the Sudanese Professionals Association, who have been at the forefront of the Sudanese popular uprising, have declared ‘an escalation of the revolution’. Reports from Khartoum say that the RSF militia has the city in lock-down, and all access roads have been blocked.

This follows the massacre of at least 100 civilians in Khartoum on Monday after government security and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militiamen violently dispersed the sit-in in front of the General Command of the Sudanese Army that had been maintained since April 6.

Khartoum lock-down

The streets of the Sudanese capital are reportedly eerily quiet today. Columns of militia vehicles patrol the streets and all access roads have been blocked. Callers referring to the RSF by its earlier name Janjaweed say that “the city is surrounded and that there is no way to enter or leave”.

General strike

In an official statement on Monday, the AFC announced the beginning of an all-out general strike and civil disobedience, and termination of negotiations with the Transitional Military Council (TMC).

“After a day of a massacre on civilians, committed by the combined forces of the Sudanese military, the RSF militia, and the national security forces in Khartoum and other cities and towns of Sudan, the AFC declares ‘an escalation of the revolution’.

The AFC refers to the ‘Coup Council’ – as it pointedly no longer refers to the ruling junta as the Transitional Military Council – fully responsible for the massacre committed on Monday. “It was a planned crime in Khartoum and in other cities including En Nahud, Atbara, Port Sudan and others.”

‘The coup council is no longer fit to negotiate with regard to the future of the Sudanese people’ – AFC

It says that all forms of communications with the coup council, including the negotiations that were ongoing, are terminated. “The coup council is no longer fit to negotiate with regard to the future of the Sudanese people. The leaders and members of the council are all held responsible for the blood that was shed since April 11, 2019, and they shall be brought before competent courts in Sudan, once the revolution is victorious.”

It announces “an open, nationwide, general strike and complete civil disobedience, beginning today, the 3rd of June 2019, and until the regime is overthrown”.

It calls on “all the honourable citizens in the armed forces and the police to live up to their duty of protecting the Sudanese people from the militias of the coup council, with their Janjaweed and shadow forces, and to side with the choice of the people in overthrowing the current regime and install a fully civilian government”.

In conclusion, the statement calls on the international community and regional community to denounce the coup, deny it any legitimacy, and side with the choices of the revolution of the Sudanese people.

Oil workers

As reported by Radio Dabanga today, the first responses to the call are being received. The Petro Energy Oilfield Operations Group Limited – Balila oil field in El Salam locality, West Kordofan, which includes Fula, FNA, Maki, Kiyi, Jake field, Hodeida, and Sufyan fields, has released a statement to this station that “the company entered into civil disobedience from the dawn of the June 4, 2019 in response to the request of the group of workers in the oil sector, which is a member of the Sudanese Professionals Association”.

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