#SudanRevolts: The Sequel?

Protests in Sudan this summer fizzled out after a harsh security crackdown jailed many activists and forced others to flee the country. This week, we have seen a fresh outbreak of protests, prompted by the deaths of four Darfuri students, allegedly at the hands of Sudanese security forces.

So what, if anything, is different this time?

Trouble began last week at Gezira University, south of Khartoum, where Darfuri students had been protesting for several days against the university's decision to charge them tuition fees. According to the Abuja and Doha agreements, Darfuri students are exempt from paying such fees. Students affiliated with the ruling Nation Congress Party (NCP), and reportedly heavily armed, clashed with the protesting students and the security services were also called in.

On Friday December 7th, it was reported the bodies of 3 students who had taken part in the protests had been found. A fourth was reported on the Sunday. The bodies were found in an on-campus canal. According to students, many of them had fled through the shallow canal, reportedly about 1 metre deep. As so many students had fled in many directions, it was not immediately realised the students were missing. Students found it hard to believe their friends had drowned in such shallow water, as authorities claimed. They accused the authorities of beating the students to death and dumping their bodies. They protested at the hospital where the students bodies were taken to, demanding an autopsy.

Their claims are not illogical. Sudanese security services are notorious for harassing, beating and torturing peaceful protesters, activists and journalists. They also have well established records of using sexual violence as a weapon and ghost houses to torture opponents of the regime.


Protests and Clashes in Khartoum

A ceremony to honour the dead students was held at the University of Khartoum on Sunday, where the initial protests were sparked in the summer. In anticipation of protests, authorities blocked nearly all exits from the campus. Only about 500 of the few thousand present managed to get out before the police started throwing tear gas. Protesters apparently set two city buses on fire and dozens were arrested.

As protests spread to Tuesday, students were driven from dorms at the Omdurman Islamic University before the dorms were set on fire and burnt to the ground. A number of Darfuri students were also stabbed during clashes on the same day between protesters and NCP supporters and security services.

Students protesting in Khartoum on Tuesday (Girifna Media)

Where is this going?

It's hard to say. There won't be an Arab Spring in Sudan. Any regime change will be difficult, slow and hard fought. Even then, the lack of a credible opposition makes it difficult to see political change on the immediate horizon.

However, activists in Sudan have demonstrated their commitment to regime change. What many of them have gone through- the constant harassment, beatings, rape, torture- is unbelievable. And still they continue in their efforts to overthrow Bashir's regime. Also, these protests differ slightly from the ones we saw this summer, as they did not stem initially from protests aimed at the ruling NCP party. Though at the moment, it appears to be mostly students involved in the protests, in the summer we saw people from many sectors of society supporting the students in their efforts. Hopefully, we will see the same now, but on an even larger scale.

There's no conclusion here. We'll just have to see what the next few days and weeks bring.

Want to know more? Check out the student-led movement Girfina's website. On Twitter, follow @superMojok who has been tweeting info from the ground and also @mimzicalmimz, a journalist and activist who was prominent in this summers protests. Although she is not currently in Sudan, she tweets a lot of relaible info from her own sources.

Oh, you don't feed starving babies for a living then?

You may think those who work in development, or those who plan to, would be a rather selfless group, dedicated to helping others, uncaring of material gains and all round good guys.

You would be wrong.

People who work in development are still people (actually, many of them are assholes but that's another blog post). They get involved in development for a variety of reasons, usually very few of which are noble. They may want to travel. They may want to drink a lot without judgement (you're not going to call someone recently returned from the war zone/refugee crisis du jour out on drinking too much now, are you?). Perhaps they want to appear to be noble. Oh, and they want to help people. But that comes a bit further down the list.

There's nothing wrong with this. Development work (I use the term 'development work' as a kind of catch all phrase for aid workers, NGO or charity employees, etc) is a vocation for some people and just a job for others. Like any job, some do it well, some don't. The thing to remember about development folk however is this: they're insanely snobby.

Yup. And not just to people in other professions- we've all pulled out the martyr-ish, "oh what you do is just as important as feeding starving babies," line (even those of us who don't actually feed starving babies). Development peeps are at their snobbiest with each other.

And they don't even wait until they're fully blown development folk. Development students are the worst. I say this as a human rights student recently returned from two semesters of internships which led to a job before I was brutally wrenched from the real world and landed back at university for my final year(bitter? Me? Abso-fucking-lutely).

The snobbiness begins with what you're studying.

I'm still an Undergrad. But I'm studying for a BA in Human Rights. Firstly, that makes me (and my classmates) awesome. Secondly, it makes us better than those of you who did a BA in English, realised you wouldn't hack it as a journalist, figured you'd like to travel and so chose to do a MA in Development Studies/Human Rights Law, etc.

I, on the other hand, was reading Samantha Power's A Problem From Hell  when I was 16 and deciding that I would study human rights and work for an INGO. Which makes me- yes, a geek but also- better than you. Fact. By the time you get your shit together at 22, decide to do your MA and figure out where Sudan is on the map, I'll have been studying it for four years already (Am I coming across as snobby???)

Don't be offended. You'll need to get used to the backhanded arrogance which is RIFE in NGOs. Aid workers are always trying to prove how hardcore they are, faux -casually dropping stories which begin "One time, I was hammered in Kabul. . ." or "When I was in a refugee camp in Goma. . ." or hinting at the affairs they've had with freelance war photographers, MSF doctors or members of the IDF (politics goes out the window when there's tequila involved).

The snobbery and arrogance goes all sorts of different directions and is usually accompanied by some envy. My class can be viewed as a microcosm of the wider development world, spread as we were all across the globe, amongst large and small organisations working on various issues. Although we do all genuinely get along, there are some discernible 'tensions' between us that emerge once we discuss placements.

People planning to do human rights law think those working in development can't get anything actually done. People doing development work think those law folk don't know what goes on in "the real world". People back in HQ are envious of those out in the field, convinced all they're doing is drinking a lot, having affairs and actually helping people while they are stuck filing endless donor reports. Meanwhile, the fieldworker (what is this bloody 'field' anyway? Does it just refer to anywhere outside of London?) is cursing what ever power cut ridden shithole he or she may be in, misses regular showers and is convinced that all the big decisions get made back in HQ and they must simply do what they're told.

If I'm making us out to be an unlikable bunch, that really isn't the case. There are few perks to our jobs sometimes what with the endless donor-reporting and postings to locations which have a distinct lack of electricity; being able to brag about how hardcore/exotic/exciting out jobs are, even if they usually aren't, is one of the few perks we have. And at least we're able to poke fun at ourselves!