11, April 2019
Coup d’état seems to be underway in Sudan 0
The Sudanese military says it will be making “an important announcement” soon, as a coup d’état seems to be underway against President Omar al-Bashir.
11, April 2019
The Sudanese military says it will be making “an important announcement” soon, as a coup d’état seems to be underway against President Omar al-Bashir.
9, April 2019
Cameroon says at least 40,000 Nigerians who fled across the border for fear of election-related violence have returned home and another 20,000 are soon to follow.
Cameroon troops whistle to indicate it is time for departure as about 3,000 Nigerians prepare to return to the village of Kukawa in Borno state.
Midjiyawa Bakari, the governor of Cameroon’s Far North region, says about 60,000 Nigerians fled into Cameroon ahead of Nigeria’s February elections, fearing that violence could break out. He says some 40,000 of them have already returned home and the rest will soon follow.
Bakari says within a week, they counted more than 40,000 Nigerians. They deployed the military to protect them, he says, and provided them with water and food while they stayed in Cameroon. The elections ended well so the Nigerians are going back to their country, says Bakari. But he notes they will be escorted by Cameroon’s military to protect them from any surprise attacks by Boko Haram militants.
Government spokeswoman Appolonia Ndukong says after escorting the returnees to the border, Cameroon’s military will hand them over to Nigerian authorities.
“We are working with the Nigerian authorities actually because they have a squad that protects, so they want us to report on any event that are taking place so that they make sure they provide the necessary protection and security services that are necessary,” said Ndukong.
UNHCR has previously criticized Cameroon for refusing to accept Nigerian refugees, in breach of its international obligations.
But Cameroon says all Nigerians returning home are doing so of their free will. Bakari says Cameroon neither considered nor treated the recent arrivals as refugees because officials often see mass movements across the border before elections.
Nigerians in Makary who fled for fear of political violence say they thank god the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari on February 23 was largely peaceful.
Thirty-five-year old Maiduguri businessman Nelson Chidi says he hopes this time around Buhari will ensure peace in Nigeria.
“… Since Buhari entered there it has become worse. You can see Boko Haram. People are dying, innocent people are dying for a crime they never committed,” said Chidi. “People are not living well. You see Nigerians are not having light while our neighboring countries have light. We produce fuel, but in our country Nigeria, fuel is too scarce. Our people are suffering because of bad government.”
No doubt Cameroon hopes for peace as well, in hopes the flow of refugees will slow down. According to the latest U.N. figures, he country currently hosts more than 400,000 refugees, mostly from Nigeria and the Central African Republic.
Source: VOA
4, April 2019
More than 60 civilians have been killed in tit-for-tat clashes between communities in northern Burkina Faso in recent days, the government said on Wednesday, the latest in a bout of inter-communal violence afflicting West Africa’s Sahel region.
Burkina and neighbouring Mali have seen a spike in ethnic clashes fuelled by Islamist militants as they seek to extend their influence over the Sahel, an arid region between Africa’s northern Sahara desert and its southern savannas.
Islamist attacks have risen in recent months, and the violence has reignited long-standing tensions between communities as certain groups are blamed for collaborating with the jihadists.
New violence arose near the town of Arbinda in Burkina’s Soum province on Sunday night, when a religious leader and six of his family members were killed by unidentified armed men, the ruling Movement of People for Progress (MPP) party said in a statement on Wednesday.
“On the morning of April 1st, reprisal acts were reported in the Arbinda Department. They were directed against a community following the assassination of a religious leader,” said MPP spokesman Bindi Ouoba.
The MPP statement said a royal family was also attacked in neighbouring Boulgou province on Sunday night, leaving at least nine dead.
Territorial Administration Minister Simeon Sawadogo said on state TV late on Wednesday that 62 people died in the Arbinda attack.
“Thirty deaths were the result of inter-communal conflicts, and 32 people were killed by terrorists,” said Sawadogo, adding that militants had taken nine hostages.
Deteriorating security prompted the government to declare a state of emergency in several northern provinces bordering Mali in December, which was extended by six months after jihadists attacked civilians in Soum.
Burkina Faso, which had previously been known for its stability in a troubled region, has suffered 499 deaths from attacks on civilians between November 2018 and March 23 – a more than 7,000 percent jump from the same period a year earlier.
(REUTERS)
30, March 2019
Fighting between Cameroon government forces and English-speaking separatists sends thousands of refugees over the border to camps in Nigeria and there’s no end in sight.
More people have been forced into refugee camps in Nigeria due to fighting between separatists and government troops in southern Cameroon.
More than 30,000 have been officially registered but aid workers have said the actual number is much higher.
Source: Al Jazeera’s
27, March 2019
The army chief of staff, Lt Gen Ahmed Gaed Salah demanded that President Bouteflika be declared unfit to rule and removed in line with Article 102 of the Algerian constitution. There are remarkable lessons from the Algerian experience. No person is indispensable. In consonance with the Shakespearean advice, men must learn to ‘quit the stage when the ovation is loudest.’
The 82-year-old Bouteflika got bitten by the African leaders’ bug after 20 years in power and wanted to continue even when it was clear that he was physically incapacitated. It is redeeming that not all past and current African leaders have swallowed the deceit of power forever.
Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Dr. Leopold Sedar Senghor and Abdou Diouf of Senegal stood out to be counted when it became necessary that they moved on. Currently, three African presidents- Paul Biya of Cameroun, Al Bashir of Sudan, and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda continue to desecrate the altar of true leadership by extended and unconstitutional stay in office.
The national constitutions have been amended to feed their penchant for clinging to power even when all the indications point in the direction of retirement.
Bouteflika would have belonged in the pantheon of worthy statesmen if he had relinquished power when he suffered a stroke in 2013. But like in Cameroon, the cabal that benefits from his stay in power has not allowed this to happen. This is a disservice to the people of Algeria and to Africa in general.
The tragedy is that these leaders who perpetuate themselves in office do so for very primordial and selfish reasons. That the army is now calling for his removal from office; is the ultimate triumph of people power in Africa.
25, March 2019
While many people across the globe hold that French-speaking countries in Africa may never make giant economic development strides because of their affinity to France, Côte d’Ivoire is debunking that myth one project at a time. The country that many had written off in the mid-nineties due to its political conflict is gradually positioning itself as a leader in the West African sub-region.
Sound policies and commitment to reforms have helped the country secure good terms on its Eurobonds issued in 2017 and 2018. External public debt is projected to reach nearly 30 percent of GDP in 2018 and is currently assessed to be sustainable in the medium-term. However, higher reliance on international market financing may raise rollover risks and reduce policy space to buffer future shocks.
Over the last six years, this West African country has undertaken major development projects and infrastructure development seems to be the government’s focus. The government is currently working with the private sector to modernize the country’s infrastructure and this has caught the attention of foreign investors who want to be part of this success story that is being written with a golden pen and which is making the country a beacon of hope.
The government is working on improving market access for crops by upgrading transportation infrastructure, extending electricity provision, and developing strategies to enhance value-added from cocoa and cashews.
Today, the country’s capital, Abidjan, has become a vast construction site with storey buildings popping up like mushroom in all the city’s neighborhoods. Côte d’Ivoire has made significant progress in reducing processing time for building permits and has introduced a new system for electronic payment of taxes and a credit bureau. There is scope for catching up with sub-Saharan African frontier market countries by improving credit access through stronger legal rights for borrowers and creditors and deeper credit information on borrowers.
Foreign capital is heading to Cote d’Ivoire and the government’s determination to place the country on the map as the most modern in West Africa is paying off big time. Even international organizations are noticing the efforts by the country’s government and their reports on the country are boosting the country’s image.
According to the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, the country’s macro-economic performance has been encouraging. The continent’s leading development finance institution reported that despite many and major economic challenges in 2018, the country’s real GDP growth reached an estimated 7.4% in 2018, down from 7.7% in 2017, supported by external demand for agricultural and oil products and stronger domestic demand resulting from major investment projects and households consumption.
The AfDB report points out that the country’s economy faced several shocks in 2017, including a sharp decline in cocoa prices, higher oil prices, and social tensions. As a result, the budget deficit increased to 4.2% of GDP, but it improved to an estimated 3.8% in 2018. Public debt increased to 48.2% of GDP in 2018, driven by Eurobond issuances in 2017 and 2018. The risk of debt distress remains moderate. Inflation was low, at an estimated 0.5% in 2018, down from 1.0% in 2017. The current account deficit widened to an estimated 2.7% of GDP in 2018 from 1.8% in 2017.
The AfDB holds that the country’s economic outlook remains favorable, with real GDP growth projected at 7.0% in 2019 and 6.9% in 2020. A good performance in the agricultural sector will keep inflation below the 3% convergence threshold for the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). The current account deficit is projected to stabilize at 2.8% in 2019, in connection with sustained imports of capital goods related to infrastructure projects.
The economy remains vulnerable to external shocks that may stem from unfavorable evolution of commodity prices (mainly cocoa and oil) and adverse climate conditions. Another pressing challenge is to sustain economic growth and ensure a more balanced distribution across sectors, with a view to achieving a structural transformation of the economy. This would require improving the quality of agricultural products and upgrading the industrial sector toward higher value added and high–job creation activities.
Regarding reforms, Côte d’Ivoire has implemented many reforms as part of its 2016–2020 National Development Plan. In energy, reforms have focused on ensuring the sector’s financial sustainability, clearing arrears for independent producers, and investing in supply capacity. As a result, installed capacity increased by 56% between 2011 and 2018 to 2,200 MW. Rural electricity coverage has also expanded from 33% of the rural population to 54%. In agriculture, reforms have focused on accelerating the development of value chains and increasing local processing for major agricultural products, including cocoa, cashew nuts, palm oil, and rubber. Investment has also improved the quality of and access to basic education and health services. But poverty and inequality reduction remain a challenge.
Côte d’Ivoire is party to most of the relevant continental institutions dedicated to regional integration. The country has historically been an important destination for immigration and remains at the center of one of the continent’s most dynamic migration routes. Côte d’Ivoire is also an important transit corridor for its landlocked neighbors, thanks to its ports in Abidjan and San Pedro. It is a key partner in the regional electricity market and is part of an electricity interconnection network with Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, and soon Mali, as well as to the Mano River Union countries (Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone). Côte d’Ivoire is the major player in WAEMU’s financial markets and hosts the regional securities exchange. Côte d’Ivoire has also increased investment in regional energy, road, and air infrastructure and telecommunication networks.
For the seventh consecutive year, the country’s economic growth was projected to exceed 7% and reach 7.4% in 2018, despite the country’s vulnerability to external shocks and political uncertainty in the run up to the presidential elections in 2020. This was the verdict of the Eighth Economic Update for Côte d’Ivoire published today by the World Bank. The country, therefore, continues to have one of the most dynamic economies in the world, boasting the highest growth rates in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), despite a slight drop of 0.3% in relation to its performance in 2017 (7.7%).
According to a World Bank report entitled “Que la route soit bonne, améliorer la mobilité urbaine à Abidjan,”the country has witnessed some decline because of the fact that the public and external sectors have been less supportive of growth and the contribution of the private sector has been more uneven.
The short- and medium-term outlook however remains favorable. The growth rate over the next few years is expected to be roughly 7%, provided that the global environment remains fairly stable and the Government continues its efforts to promote the private sector and foster more inclusive growth.
The report also devotes an entire section to the challenges of urban mobility in this country where the rate of urbanization soared from 17.7% in 1960 to over 50% in 2018. Today, 80% of economic activity in the country is concentrated in Abidjan, the economic capital of Côte d’Ivoire and home to over 5 million people.
“Urbanization, once it is well planned and managed, can help the country’s businesses become more productive and improve households’ living conditions by offering them jobs, schools for their children, and better health care than in rural areas,” explains Jacques Morisset, World Bank Program Leader in Côte d’Ivoire and lead author of the report.
Given that by 2050, nearly two out of three Ivorians will be living in an urban center, over 10 million of whom will settle in Abidjan, urban mobility challenges will intensify if no action is taken, and solutions will become increasingly difficult to implement. The report analyzes the daily mobility constraints faced by commuters and proposes several avenues for improving urban transport and ensuring the success of the Greater Abidjan project adopted in 2016.
“There are approximately 10 million trips taken every day in Abidjan and each household spends close to CFAF 1075 (about US$1.80) and loses over three hours a day in commuting time,” explains Anne Cecile Souhaid, Senior Transport Specialist and co-author of the report. “That is equivalent to nearly 5% of the national GDP in 2017. However, a 20% improvement in urban mobility in Abidjan could generate gains of almost 1% of annual GDP growth.”
Since achieving independence in 1960, Côte d’Ivoire has managed to maintain broadly friendly relations with its neighbours, its French former colonial ruler, and within a continental and multilateral context. Côte d’Ivoire has long been a player in ECOWAS, which ties the country to 14 other nations in the region. Eight countries also share membership of the West African CFA franc zone, the central bank of which is headquartered in Abidjan.
Recently, after a decade-long political crisis ended in 2011, Côte d’Ivoire’s economy has bounced back to become one of the fastest-growing in Africa. Between 2012 and 2016 the country’s GDP grew by an annual average of 9%, with the IMF forecasting annual GDP expansion of at least 6.5% through to 2023. This recovery was supported by rising international commodity prices, as well as substantial public sector funding to rebuild and upgrade infrastructure that had suffered from years of under-investment. At the same time, the country has sought to diversify its agriculture-focused economy by developing the mining and oil and gas sectors.
The IMF recently completed its annual health check of the Ivoirian economy. Political normalization and good implementation of reforms have contributed to the country’s strong economic performance since 2012. Going forward, bold structural reforms are needed to sustain the pace of development, and ensure that the benefits are shared by all. The current government is committed to keeping the economy dynamic while ensuring that growth is shared and pro-poor.
By Bamba Gaoussou
Cameroon Concord News Group correspondent in Abidjan
25, March 2019
Disease is threatening to aggravate the already dire conditions facing millions of survivors following the powerful tropical cyclone that ravaged southern Africa 10 days ago, officials warned on Sunday.
Cyclone Idai smashed into Mozambique’s coast unleashing hurricane-force wind and rain that flooded swathes of the poor country before battering eastern Zimbabwe — killing 705 people across the two nations.
“It is inevitable that cases of cholera and malaria will arise. In many areas we are already fighting with malaria cases,” said Land Minister Celso Correia at a briefing in Beira, 1,000 kilometers northeast of the capital, Maputo.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, also at the briefing, warned that disease outbreaks in inaccessible areas could be “really problematic.”
The World Food Programme said Friday that the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Mozambique is on a par with the situation in Yemen and Syria.
Aid workers from across the world are continuing to arrive in the region to bring help to more than two million affected people across an area of roughly 3,000 square kilometers.
Survivors are struggling in desperate conditions with some still trapped on rooftops and those rescued in urgent need of food and medical supplies.
“The government is already setting up a cholera treatment center to mitigate cholera. We should not be frightened when cholera issues arise,” added Correia, describing efforts to control the emerging humanitarian crisis. “It is normal. It’s almost inevitable. Malaria, we know how it arises. We have lots of wetlands and we’re going to have malaria that is sure to come up (there).”
Wilfried Deloviare, a 19-year-old resident of Beira, which was caught in the eye of the storm, said he felt “sorry for our town, our city, because we suffered a lot to build it.”
“Houses are completely destroyed, and some people don’t have money to rebuild their businesses — and many businesses are going to fail,” he told AFP.
‘People don’t know what to do’
More than two million people have been affected in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi, where the storm started as a tropical depression causing flooding, which killed 60 and displaced nearly a million people. Hundreds are still missing in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had recorded two cases of cholera so far but the UN was unable to confirm the reports.
Stampa described efforts to re-open the main access road to Beira as a “big victory.”
“We will be able to bring more help to families living in this affected area,” he said.
Those living in affected areas of Mozambique began to trickle back to church over the weekend.
The Ponta Gea Catholic Cathedral in Beira was miraculously undamaged by the storm while the church next door was leveled.
“The people don’t know what to do because they lost their houses, they have no food, they don’t know where to sleep — this brings sadness and anxiety,” said Father Pedro, who conducted a mass in darkness late on Saturday.
Much of the area hit by the cyclone remains disconnected from electricity supplies, complicating rescue efforts at nightfall.
As many as 109,000 people are living in shelters across central Mozambique, many of them located in and around Beira.
One survivor was six-year-old Elena Joaquin, who clutched a coconut as she sat surrounded by pots and pans at a shelter in Buzi, southwest of Beria, where she had sought refuge along with her parents.
But life had slowly begun to return to normal in central Beira, where traffic was flowing more than in recent days and businesses were resuming trade.
(Source: AFP)
22, March 2019
A human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, has condemned deportation of Cameroonians who had applied for asylum in Nigeria saying the action lacks legality. In a letter sent to the attorney general of the federation and minister of justice, Abubakar Malami, Falana said his clients were also entitled to legal protection. The senior lawyer argued that in utter breach of their rights, they were deported and dumped in Cameroon by the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA).
Falana said: “Based on the instruction of our client, we challenged the expulsion from Nigeria at the Abuja judicial division of the Federal High Court. This case was defended by your chambers on behalf of the respondents including your office. “In the judgment delivered on March 1, 2019, the Federal High Court declared the deportation of our client as illegal and unconstitutional, and awarded reparation of various sums to them, ordering the federal government to bring them back to Nigeria and restore all their rights and privileges as bona-fide refugees and asylum seekers in Nigeria.”
The lawyer urged the attorney general to use his good office to compel the federal government to comply with the judgment of the Federal High Court. Legit.ng previously reported that the United Nations said no fewer than 32,000 Cameroonians fleeing insecurity and violence are currently taking refuge in Nigeria.
The UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Cameroon, Allegra Baiocchi, while presenting the 2019 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for the country, described the situation in the country as “forgotten crisis”. Baiocchi and Cameroon’s civil protection director, Yap Mariatou, warned at the launch in Geneva that there was a drastic increase in humanitarian need across the country. The UN chief for Cameroon regretted that with attacks on the rise, around 4.3 million Cameroonians, mostly women and children, were in need of lifesaving assistance.
www.legit.ng
21, March 2019
Hundreds of trucks transporting food and humanitarian assistance to the Central African Republic are blocked at the border with Cameroon, as rebels have cut off the road to the capital, Bangui. The rebels acted to protest the president’s new cabinet, which they say is not being representative enough.
Among the 230 trucks and more than 500 drivers stranded in Garoua Boulay was Kum Aki, 54, who was transporting rice, maize and vegetable oil to the troubled CAR. He said most of the drivers had exhausted their $200 to $400 allowances they were given to cover the distance within a maximum of 10 days.
Expenses mount
“We are almost about 10 days here. … You have eaten, you have paid hotel bills and all this. So now we are short of money,” he said.
Alex Nseumen, president of the CAR transport trade union, said he crossed the border but was asked to return.
He said that when he crossed the border, he was told that CAR rebels had blocked the road at Nzokombo, 14 kilometers from the town of Garoua Boulay. He said he was expecting his boss to send additional funds so he could take care of himself and the assistant driver.
Garoua Boulay residents have complained of the mass movement of panic-stricken CAR residents across the border, expressing concern it may escalate.
In a crisis meeting Monday, Laurence Diyem Jam, the highest-ranking government official in Garoua Boulay, assured the population of their safety and said the military was controlling the border.
El Hadj Oumarou, Cameroon coordinator of the land freight transportation bureau, visited the drivers and thanked the government of Cameroon for assuring their safety.
He said he was very happy that the government had secured the trucks, goods and lives of the stranded drivers despite the tension their presence is causing in Garoua Boulay. He said they had not documented any incidents that would be a threat to anyone’s life.
Landlocked CAR depends on Cameroon’s Douala seaport for about 95 percent of its supplies.
Etienne Mbonjo, director of Catholic Church Health Services in CAR, said patients might begin to suffer soon, if drugs meant for Bangui remained in Cameroon for another week.
He said it took courage to meet the rebel groups, though negotiations failed to open the border. He said health and humanitarian needs were increasing daily and that the United Nations should take note.
CAR rebel groups accuse President Faustin-Archange Touadéra of failing to comply with a 2018 peace agreement that required a government with representatives from all armed groups. Only six of the 14 groups that signed the deal have members in the cabinet.
VOA
12, April 2019
Women lead the charge, and chants, in Sudan protests 0
Sudan was a repressive place for women under Omar al-Bashir’s Islamist 30-year reign. But women have reclaimed their voice during the latest anti-regime protests and are determined to secure their place in the future.
Dalia El Roubi was 10 years old when Omar al-Bashir seized power in a bloodless coup. She vividly recalls the drastic changes in her life when public order and civiclaws changed in Sudan shortly after the takeover.
“I clearly remember my childhood was taken away. We were young, but we dressed freely as teenagers and pre-teens,” Roubi explained. “Suddenly, everything changed: The way we dress changed, our school uniforms changed. For my generation, it was a strange experience, we had a taste of freedom and then it suddenly transformed. We became sexualised objects and our bodies became a battleground for those in power.”
Exactly three decades after the 1989 coup, the 41-year-old activist and member of the opposition Sudanese Congress Party said she was exhilarated by the leading roles women played on the front lines of the latest anti-government protests.
Speaking to FRANCE 24 in a phone interview from Khartoum – where she briefly tore herself away from demonstrations in the heart of the Sudanese capital to access her phone service – Roubi described incredible scenes. “Women are at the forefront, the leaders, here. It’s not the stereotype of women in the background cheering the men. Women start chanting and we also regulate the chanting. If the chants include sexist statements or are discriminatory, we regulate it, we just explain, there’s no aggression. It’s a harassment-free zone, it’s exceptional.”
When the latest round of anti-regime demonstrations broke out in December, one of the protest chants described Bashir as weak and compared him to a woman. But demonstrators changed that tune after women began calling it out on social media.
The international community got a crash course in female power this week when a video of a young woman in a white toub, or traditional Sudanese robe, leading a lively protest song went viral.
Standing on top of a car in sneakers, matched with toub and traditional bridal jewellery, Alaa Salah, a 22-year-old architecture student, epitomised not just girl power, but also the cultural diversity that was suppressed during Bashir’s reign.
Following the 1989 coup, Bashir’s alliance with hardline Islamist politician Hassan al-Turabi saw an austere brand of Islamism imposed on an ancient land at the crossroads of African trade routes, where merchants from as far as India and Anatolia settled, bringing with them a cultural heterogeneity that was an integral part of Sudanese identity.
Salah’s garment quickly turned into a symbol of cultural reassertion, a shout out to the Kandakas, or Nubian queens who ruled the Kush kingdom in what is now Sudan more than 3,000 years ago.
On Thursday, Sudanese Defense Minister Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Auf announced the army had toppled and arrested Bashir and a transitional military council would rule the country for two years.
But demonstrators promptly rejected the military takeover, with the Sudanese Professionals Association, one of the main protest organisers, calling instead for a civilian transitional government to be put in place.
“We are definitely committed and focused on ensuring this is not a military coup and we’re determined to make that clear. It’s not a case of, ‘The military is going to save us.’ We don’t want another Islamist with a different face,” said Roubi.
A byword for human rights abuses
Sudan’s future is being shaped in the days and months to come, and few protesters are likely to accept a two-year transition period led by Defense Minister Auf, a longtime Bashir loyalist who was blacklisted by the US in 2010 for his role in the Darfur conflict.
“The man who for the moment holds power, Awad Mohammed Ibn Auf, is himself associated with many of the atrocities that Bashir was responsible for in Darfur. He is alleged to have coordinated many of the attacks by the Janjaweed, the brutal militia that was so active and caused so many of the casualties in Darfur,” explained FRANCE 24’s chief foreign editor, Rob Parsons.
Sudan protests: ‘The leaders of the demonstration wanted more’
Under Bashir, Sudan turned into a byword for brutal human rights violations, including allegations of a genocide against Darfuri men, women and children during the conflict in western Sudan, which led to an indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the Sudanese strongman.
South of Darfur, in the Bahr al Jabal region, decades of brutal wars between the regime and the primarily Nilotic Christian populace finally led to the breakaway and independence of South Sudan, depriving Khartoum of the third-largest oil reserves in sub-Saharan Africa.
Women bear brunt of Bashir’s brutality
But combatants who took up arms against Khartoum were not the only ones who suffered violations by Bashir’s regime.
Sudanese women bore the brunt of the regime’s violations, ranging from vaguely defined public morality laws that limited their movement without male guardians to corporal punishment such as lashings to severe abuses –including rape – by security forces while in detention.
Women’s rights defenders were particularly targeted, in a systematic attempt by Sudanese authorities to silence female activists, lawyers and journalists, New York-based Human Rights Watch noted in a 2016 report.
Roubi herself was detained in 2013 during the “Sudan Change Movement,” which broke out after the 2011 Arab uprisings. Activists say more than 200 people were killed in a crackdown by Bashir’s security forces while Sudanese authorities reported around 70 deaths.
The arrest of a prominent, British-educated activist and former World Bank employee made headlines on pan-African websites. Upon her release, Roubi detailed the conditions of her detention in an interview with AFP.
Six years later, and on a milestone day in Sudan’s history, Roubi was dismissive about her detention experience.
“More than 200 people were shot down in Khartoum in broad daylight. I was detained for eight days. My arrest was nothing compared to what others had to endure. It’s a big problem – the lashings, interrogations, intimidation, beatings, families not knowing where their loved ones have disappeared. My case was different because it had high visibility, I was a World Bank employee and there was a different dynamic,” she said.
‘Strong-willed’ women
During the latest protests, the fear of arrest was hardly an issue, Roubi said.
“There were thousands arrested since the demonstrations broke out in December. On March 8 (International Women’s Day), they released some women prisoners and the government made a big deal about it. But we were ready to fill the jails. If we’re all ready to go to jail, it stops being intimidating,” she explained.Women protesters take to the streets in Khartoum
Bashir’s ouster does not mean that freedom in Sudan is guaranteed, but Roubi is optimistic. “It makes me so hopeful when I see young women and men, who do not know what it was like before the repression, campaigning for change,” she said.
Roubi is quick to clarify that Sudan had repressive regimes before Bashir. But, she explains, they concentrated on political and security issues and did not target women’s rights.
Despite the Bashir regime’s assault on women’s rights, Roubi proudly notes that, “at a social level, we have always had strong female characters”.
“It’s very rare to find mothers, grandmothers, sisters, students who are not strong-willed. We Sudanese women are breadwinners, we work, we demand respect – that’s our tradition.”
Reclaiming a more tolerant past
While Sudan today is a Sunni Muslim-majority nation, most Sudanese Muslims adhere to the Maliki school of jurisprudence and are deeply influenced by Sufism, a more mystical branch of Islam. The form of Islam imported by the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Turabi and Bashir was alien to the syncretic nature of worship traditionally practiced in Sudan.
Bashir and the late Turabi had a political falling out and a rocky relationship after 1996, but that did not ease the pressure on women. In recent years, economic hardships – compounded by international sanctions and the loss of oil revenues from South Sudan – saw Bashir move closer to Saudi Arabia, with its brand of conservative Wahabbi Islam making inroads into the African nation.
Many activists of Roubi’s generation could see the impact that decades of sustained hardline Islamism had on young women. “I was always frustrated discussing gender issues with younger women because the regime had changed their way of thinking,” she said.
But that bleak assessment appears to have changed since the latest protests broke out last year.
“There’s no generational divide now. Young women have shown so much resilience and courage, mobilising and campaigning. There are obviously discussions still to be had – some want more public participation but are socially conservative while others are not. But we all agree on women’s participation in public life, in work and in leadership positions. Our voices now are louder and we’re being heard.”
France 24