SUDAN
Speaking of Protests
Four days of widespread protests in Sudan are prompting hopes and fears of an imminent end to the 29-year rule of President Omar al-Bashir, who was indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in 2010.
It’s not the ethnic cleansing in Darfur but his disastrous economic performance that has sparked his people’s ire, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported, following the deaths of at least nine protesters and the arrests of 14 opposition leaders.
Sudan lost three-quarters of its oil output when the south seceded in 2011.
The protests began Wednesday after the government tripled the price of a loaf of bread from about $0.02 to $0.06, heightening anger over inflation and shortages of basic commodities, Al Jazeera reported.
While the number of protesters has been low, demonstrations have cropped up around the country and persisted despite the deployment of tear gas and baton-wielding riot police, the news channel noted. On Monday, the country’s doctors are expected to go on strike in the first of a series of work stoppages planned by an umbrella coalition of professional unions.
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