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January 19, 2022
by Pete Brown, Detroit Workers’ Voice
In Sudan, the people continue fighting to end the military dictatorship. Massive demonstrations continue to be launched in Khartoum and other cities. Militant but nonviolent protesters confront the forces of the military – police, army, and irregular militias controlled by the military’s top brass. Trying to appear like a responsible government, the military claims it respects the rights of peaceful demonstrators. But its soldiers regularly open fire, and since the coup of October 25 they have killed 75 protesters. Many more have been wounded or arrested and thrown into dungeons, while women demonstrators have often been raped.
The generals have shown themselves to be bloodthirsty fascists time and again. Yet the United Nations, the United States government and other Western nations continue to call for dialogue with them. This week representatives of the UN and the U.S. are holding talks with different forces in Sudan trying to cobble together a government of civilians with the military. But the backbone of the people’s struggle continues to insist on the three no’s: “No negotiations! No compromise! No power-sharing [with the military]!”
Protests and demonstrations are taking place all over Sudan, on different issues. An especially large one took place on January 17, when thousands took to the streets in Khartoum and marched to the presidential palace. There soldiers attacked them and killed seven (1). Hundreds are regularly wounded. (2) Wounded demonstrators are rushed to the hospital, but they are not safe there. Soldiers regularly target hospital ERs with tear gas and sometimes invade hospitals looking for demonstrators to arrest. (3) Plainclothes security personnel are stationed outside hospitals, and when wounded activists are released from the hospital, they are immediately arrested and taken to jail. (4) Security personnel have even taken to stopping ambulances, arresting the occupants or just harassing them and slowing them down.
Since the resignation of the interim prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok, outside forces have been scrambling to intervene and to reconcile civilian protesters with the military. President Biden’s Special Envoy resigned and was replaced by a new one who will visit Sudan this week along with an Assistant Secretary of State. (5) The African Union is also promoting reconciliation, as is the United Nations.
The UN has a special team on the ground in Sudan called UNITAM which has supervised peace agreements with South Sudan and Darfur. Now UNITAM is busy promoting peace with the fascist military. Their team is appealing to civilian protesters to meet with the military and work out agreements. This has produced something of a split between the civilian forces, as some of them have agreed to participate in UN-sponsored talks. (6) The Central Council of the FFC (Forces of Freedom and Change) has agreed to meet with UN personnel and to present their views, although it’s not clear that all the organizations within FFC have agreed to participate. Meanwhile, the trade union federation, SPA, has rejected the idea of UN-sponsored talks and will not participate. They insist on maintaining the three no’s and that the military must immediately hand over power to a civilian government. (7) Actually, the FFC also maintains this position, the difference being that they are willing to sit with the UN representatives.
Thus it remains to be seen how serious the rift is between various forces fighting for a transition to a civilian democratic government. Meanwhile, the most hopeful news is that neighborhood resistance committees, which have been the backbone of the struggle, have begun working out a common political charter as the basis of a civilian government. (8) While the UN and the U.S. try to revive the political agreement of August 2019, which projected a four-year transition to civilian government, the resistance committees insist this agreement is no longer valid since the October 25 coup. They insist on immediate civilian rule which will organize elections. And they insist on accountability for military officers who have supervised crimes against pro-democracy protesters.
The resignation of prime minister Hamdok took away the last fig leaf for the fascist military rule in Sudan. The U.S. and UN can no longer pretend there is a functioning transition to democracy in Sudan. Not with the Sudanese military in control and massacring the Sudanese people. There must be an immediate end to their savage rule.
(For background information see “3rd anniversary of the start of the Sudanese revolution against the al-Bashir dictatorship: Hundreds of thousands take to the streets in Khartoum”, Dec. 28, 2021, http://www.communistvoice.org/DSWV-211228.html).
(1) “Sudanese security forces shoot dead seven protesters in fresh anti-coup rallies:
Security forces shot and killed seven protesters Monday during rallies
against last year's military coup, medics said, ahead of a visit by US
diplomats seeking to revive a transition to civilian rule.” France 24, Issued on 17/01/2022, 17:14, and modified 17/01/2022, 18:20,
(2) “Sudan security forces fire tear gas at anti-coup protesters: A protester and a security officer have been killed as protests continue against the October 25 military coup”. Aljazeera, 13 Jan 2022,
(3) “Sudan: 15 attacks on health facilities and workers in two months.” UN News, 12 January 2022, https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/01/1109612.
(4) “Sudanese security forces arrest wounded protesters." Sudan Tribune, 15 January 2022.
(5) “New US Africa envoy to visit Ethiopia and Sudan: US envoy, assistant secretary to meet leaders and civil society actors during severe crises in the two African nations”. Aljazeera, 15 January 2022,
(6) “Sudan pro-democracy faction agrees to UN-brokered talks: The Forces of Freedom and Change says it will take part in UN-sponsored talks to end months of political deadlock.” Aljazeera, 16 January 2022.
(7) “Sudan opposition divided over UN initiative for dialogue.” Radio Dabanga, January 10, 2022,
(8) “UNITAM talks: Sudan grassroots committees to prepare ‘political charter’”, Radio Dabanga, January 17, 2022, <>
Please circulate widely, so that knowledge about and support for the democratic movement in Sudan spreads among workers and activists:
Statement by the Sudanese Journalists’ Network, Khartoum, Monday, January 17, 2022
Urgent call for international solidarity campaign
Stop the crimes against humanity committed by military forces and militias in Sudan!!
On 17th January 2022, military forces and militias of the Coup d'État authority in Sudan, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, committed a new massacre after using live bullets against peaceful demonstrators across the capital, Khartoum. Today, we have lost 9 martyrs who were directly injured by live bullets in the head, chest and abdomen, while more than 118 were injured, most of them seriously.
This massacre is not the first, but it is an indication of the coup authorities’ increasing repression and aggression. It is an extension of a series of crimes against humanity involving members of the armed forces, the police, the forces of the General Intelligence Service, and the notorious “popular security” militias of the former regime which support the current military coup. This is in addition to the Sudan Rapid Forces (previously known as the Janjaweed militias) support of the coup d'état, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) led by Gibreel Ibrahim and the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Arko Minnawi. These are allied with the coup d'état and their members were identified within the joint forces formed by the coup authorities.
These joint forces, which were granted absolute powers by the coup leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan to deal with demonstrations (including shooting to kill, extra-judiciary arrests, arrest, search and confiscation of property and assets), have established legal immunity by decree in accordance with the Emergency Decree issued by the coup leaders to avoid accountability. These forces have committed a series of crimes against humanity and war crimes since the beginning of the coup d'état. To date, 75 peacefully-demonstrating martyrs, along with hundreds of injured, were killed including in today’s massacre. The violations we’ve monitored include the following:
The Sudanese people face war criminals who commit a series of crimes against humanity, carried out by militias and criminal gangs that are in breach of all values, customs and religions, wearing military uniforms. Their actions pose a grave threat to the lives of the Sudanese and are protected by coup leaders.
In the face of this catastrophic situation, we call on all free, peace-loving and freedom-loving peoples worldwide to show solidarity with our people’s march towards their legitimate right to democracy and peace.
Let’s raise our voices to stop the murders and crimes against humanity in Sudan.
Secretariat of the Sudanese Journalists Network
#Stop_crimes_against_humanity_in_Sudan
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1604344696584980&id=243633812656082
The appeal also appeared on Radio Dabanga,,on allAfrica,,and elsewhere. <>
Picture: protesters on streets of the capital Khartoum on 13 January 2022
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