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We thought we were going to have a week dedicated to France, but news from Sudan changed our plans. In the hometown of the greatest Arab writer of the 1900s, brutal repressions are currently underway by the military junta, which came to power after the recent riots. We will try to give you a picture of what the situation is for now; unfortunately the government has overshadowed the internet and, at the moment, any news is fragmented.
Yesterday
Sudan is one of the largest states in the whole of Africa, located immediately below Egypt, to whose history it has been extremely connected since the time of the pharaohs. Since 1956 it gained independence from the latter and from England, to whose “administration” it was subjected since 1882. Since 30 June 1989 the dictatorship of General Omar al Bashir has been in force in the country, under his rule both the Second Sudanese Civil War (which began in 1983) and the Darfur Conflict. The latter, which ran from 2003 to 2010, is remembered as one of the most violent military repressions in recent years, leading to the death of 300,000 people and 2 million displaced people.
In that conflict, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo will appear for the first time, a central character in these days and who made his debut there, gaining esteem and admiration of his president. Dagalo, also known as Hemeti, was one of the leaders of the Janjaweed, paramilitary groups that sowed death and destruction in the region. Since 19 December 2018, protests have been underway in Sudan against General Bashir due to the increase in dear life and the ongoing economic crisis. After months of protest, the army dismissed the president on 11 April 2019 and proclaimed a transitional military government.
Today
The protests, however, do not stop, the people want the final transition with elections and a government of civilians, the military, however, are not there and, starting from June 3, the capital Khartoum will be transformed into the new Darfur. That day the military blocked the internet across the country, preventing any contact with the outside world and starting the massacre.
As of that date, every news item is dramatic. There is talk of hundreds of people killed and thrown into the Nile, of raped women, men and children and hundreds of wounded. What makes it all more dramatic is the non-existent attention of the western media and the blackout that continues to persist in the country. To complicate matters the role of Dagalo, true head of the current government, with a greater “military experience” accumulated during the years of “managing migratory flows”. The situation is unmanageable but precisely for this reason we must not abandon the Sudanese, the only weapon that is left is that of public opinion.
Blue Sudan
Just in these days a campaign for Sudan was born on Instagram which, fortunately, is traveling around the world, pushing many to take sides against these brutal violence. The campaign consists of changing their profile photo with a particular shade of blue used as the last profile photo by the Sudanese engineer Mohamed Mattar, killed on his birthday while defending two girls from the clashes.
The campaign immediately managed to expand and make its voice heard, pushing actors and not only to take action, not ceasing to talk about Sudan and giving this unfortunate country a new lymph to resist. We leave you the links of some Instagram pages that deal with 360 ° of the topic, we hope you can support them, especially at a time like this: Sudanese Shotout, Sudan, Bsonblast and Yousra Elbagir.
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