Sudan’s opposition rejects lifting of fuel subsidy

The National Consensus Forces (NCF), a coalition of opposition parties, described the press conference of President Omar Al Bashir on Sunday evening and his rationale given for the rise of the prices as “propaganda and lies” and not acceptable. Kamal Omar, the official spokesman of the NCF, described the address of Al Bashir as “a proof of disregard” of the Sudanese people. He asked the people to go to the streets and protest, revolt, and call for the “downfall of the regime”.Omar appealed to the people not to surrender to the government’s decisions, adding that “the Sudanese people cannot sacrifice themselves for the sake of a national budget used for killing and corruption and subjugation of themselves.” Security men arrested on Sunday evening more than 25 political leaders and activists, the most prominent of them being Siddig Yusif of the Sudanese Communist Party. Also arrested were Eng. Mohamed Hassan El Bushi of the Baath Party, Mirghani Atta El Manan, Mohamed Mukhtar, Hashim El Tilib, and Abdelkhalig El Tayeb of the Communist Party, Mohamed Ahmed Siddig and Abdelgadir El Nasri of the Popular Congress Party, and Omar Daf Allah of the National Umma Party, besides Munzir Abu El Maali, activist, and Mohamed Musa, an activist originally from Darfur.The spokesman of the NCF attributed the wave of arrests to the aim of the government to safeguard its decision on the lifting of fuel and the rise in prices. He confirmed to Radio Dabanga that the President’s remarks about a rapprochement between the ruling party and the other political parties, does not include the NCF. For the members of the NCF the only solution is “regime change”. The Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) renewed its call to all the Sudanese people to go out to the streets and protest against the “economic reforms”. It confirmed its “resistance to the regime until its overthrow”. Abdel Wahid Mohamed Ahmed El Nur, leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement in Darfur, and vice president of the SRF said during an interview with Radio Dabanga that the arguments President Al Bashir presented during his press conference on Sunday evening showed the President’s and his party’s indifference and disdain of the Sudanese people. El Nur said that during this unusual press conference of the President, he felt “nauseated” in particular because Al Bashir was speaking comfortably and seemed to be totally unaffected. He added that the huge amounts and taxes drawn from the “flesh of the Sudanese citizen”, unfortunately does not reach the State’s treasury but “it goes to Al Bashir and his relatives. The only reform Al Bashir needs is a reform of himself.” El Nur stressed the squalid conditions the Sudanese are living in, which can only be improved by a change of regime “from its roots”. He added that this is not the last rise in prices. They will continue until all Sudanese stand up and protest. El Nur appealed in the name of the SRF and the Sudan Liberation Movement to all the Sudanese to demonstrate and resist the regime, he termed as a “genocide system for all the Sudanese”. File photo: The lifting of the fuel subsidy by Khartoum has caused prices to skyrocket Related: Protests as Sudan lifts fuel subsidy (23 September 2013) Plan to lift subsidies on fuel ‘death penalty’ for Sudanese (18 September 2013)