Sudan: Police officers go on strike

A number of Sudanese police officers have gone on a 24-hour full strike starting Sunday with the aim of putting more pressure on the military council to make major reforms that target corruption in the Sudanese police, the London-based news website Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed reported.

Criticism of the Sudanese police intensified amid the recent protests that toppled Omar Al-Bashir as president after 30 years of his rule.

Witnesses told Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed that the police offices that serve citizens in Khartoum were unable to carry on their daily tasks on Sunday.

Hafez Al-Zaki, a Sudanese citizen, said that he would have to go back to the Khartoum police complex on Monday to get a passport issued. Like many other citizens, he could not get his paperwork done on Sunday due to the strike.

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Due to pressures from the Forces of the Declaration of Freedom and Change, a coalition of opposition groups, police chief Tayeb Babaker and two other senior officers had to submit their resignation to the military council following accusations that they belonged to the old regime.

Revolutionaries contend that the police took part in suppressing protests and stood still as other security apparatuses cracked down on protesters, which resulted in the killing of 90 protesters during the uprising that erupted on 19 December, 2018.

According to a statement by striking police officers, the one-day strike comes after the military council and the general director of the police have “ignored” a memo they wrote calling for “substantial steps” to eradicate corruption.

On his part, the former head of Kassala told Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed that this police strike is “unique.”

He added that he feels satisfied with the efforts exerted by the Sudanese police to eliminate politicised, corrupt officers.

Protests in Sudan – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]