Sudan cuts state of emergency to six months

article-img

Sudan’s parliament has approved a nation-wide state of emergency of six months in place of the one-year period ordered by President Omar al-Bashir last month.

Sudan’s leader ordered a year-long state of emergency from February 22 in a bid to quell protests calling for him to step down. However, the speaker of parliament Ibrahim Ahmed Omer announced on Monday that lawmakers had voted to approve a period of six months instead.

Parliament slashes state of emergency

Sudan has been gripped by protests since December 19 after the government decided to triple the price of bread. While the demonstrations initially began over food prices and commodity shortages, protesters began calling for regime change and the resignation of long-serving president Omar al-Bashir.

Heavy crackdowns on protests have killed dozens of people but failed to bring an end to the demonstrations. Bashir announced a state of emergency last month and replaced government ministers with military personnel but protesters remain defiant.

Analysts have called this the biggest threat to Bashir’s rule which stretches back three decades.

Featured image: Autor: محسن الفكي – Vlastní dílo, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31412866

About Aaron Brooks

Aaron Brooks is a UK journalist who wants to cut out the international agendas in news. Spending his early years in both England and Northern Ireland he saw the difference between reality and media coverage at an early age. After graduating from the University of Chester with a BA in journalism, his travels revealed just how large the gap between news and the real world can be. As Editor-in-Chief at East Africa Monitor, it’s his job to provide a balanced view of what’s going on in the region for English-speaking audiences.