Sudan opposition bloc calls for general strike Tuesday

By Mohammed Amin

KHARTOUM (AA) - Sudan’s “Change and Freedom” alliance, a coalition of opposition parties, has called for a countrywide general strike Tuesday to demand the resignation of President Omar al-Bashir.

In a Monday statement, the alliance called for a one-day strike, which, it said, could be extended if strikers’ demands were not met.

“We have called on all professions, both public and private, to take part in tomorrow’s strike,” the statement reads.

It goes on to describe the planned labor action as “the first step towards a wider general strike that will bring down the regime and pave the way for democratic transition”.

In a related development, the Democratic Alliance of Sudanese Lawyers, an NGO, said that “dozens” of protesters had been prosecuted on Monday before emergency courts.

Describing the tribunals as “illegal”, the alliance went on to assert that some 60 protesters had been slapped with jail terms ranging in length between two weeks and five years.

Sudan has been rocked by protests since mid-December, with demonstrators decrying al-Bashir’s apparent failure to remedy the country’s chronic economic woes.

A nation of 40 million, Sudan has struggled to recover from the loss of some three quarters of its oil output -- its main source of foreign currency -- following the secession of South Sudan in 2011.