A southern sector of the Sudanese capital has been renamed “the Democratic Republic of al-Diyum”. For four days, thousands of demonstrators have gathered there.
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“The Democratic Republic of al-Diyum”: since Thursday, June 30, a southern district of Khartoum, capital of Sudan, has been renamed in red letters traced on a white sheet stretched over the barricades that lock the ‘Avenue Sahafa. Activists control the comings and goings, sometimes take a look at the interior of the bags to ensure that no defending object is found at the site of the sit-in.
For four days, thousands of demonstrators have gathered day and night in the streets of this popular district. Some sleep there, on the street, on carpets or iron beds, others land in the morning their arms loaded with provisions. In the evening, the crowd swells and ignites with revolutionary songs, lit by phones or by smoke bombs.
The shock wave caused by the brutal repression of the demonstrations of June 30 is still felt. That day, when processions of tens of thousands of people were smashed in many cities in the country, the putschist forces again fired real bullets. In Khartoum, a doctor committee has counted 9 dead (including 8 by bullets) and more than 600 injured in one day, one of the heaviest assessments since the coup of October 25, 2021.
Faced with the violence of the authorities, the resistance committees, spearhead of the protest, decided to change their strategy. Three other places of gatherings similar to that of al-Diyum have been improvised in the twin cities of the capital, Omdurman and Bahri, to demand the end of the military junta and the establishment of civil power. The movement could extend to other cities in Sudan, such as Wad Madani, Gezira, and Sennar, in Blue Nile.
“Our martyrs are not dead”
“We have lost too many people. We want to avoid direct confrontation at the moment,” summarizes Moumin, an activist with rectangular glasses, busy organizing the life of the sit-in. Everyone fulfills their role. In the background, a matron with the “Toub”, the traditional tunic, organizes the preparation of evening meals. An old mustachioed man brings his motorcycle loaded with cables and speakers to sound to sound the speeches.
As in the weekly demonstrations organized against the junta, the rally brings together all generations and all social classes. “It is the whole company that is here on the street. Who will the military junta govern when it killed all these students, these engineers, these doctors?” Enrage Amana Idriss, 50 years old, at first rank of all processions.
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