sudan uprising
News Brief
Antoinette Isama
Jul. 29, 2019 01:29PM EST

Four Students Have Been Killed During a Protest in Sudan

Doctors from the opposition say four students and one adult were shot dead during a demonstration led by high school students in the city of El-Obeid.

Four school children and one adult have been killed by security forces attempting to disperse a protest in El-Obeid—a city in the North Kordofan state in Sudan, Reuters reports.

According to the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors—one of the many professional groups linked to the opposition, the five victims were shot dead during a demonstration led by high school students, with many others injured.

"Five martyr succumbed to direct wounds from sniper bullets during a peaceful rally in El-Obeid," the committee says in a statement to AFP.

Video footage on social media allegedly show the student protesters speaking out against the killings and injuries, chanting, "blood for blood—we will not accept blood money."

State security services and Sudan's military leader who forced out former president Omar al-Bashir have yet to make a statement.

Despite the July 17 agreement reached between the ruling military and civilians for power transfer and elections, protests still continue across the country as the negotiations have been constantly delayed due to disagreements regarding the wording of a constitutional declaration to determine the role of a new council to run the country.

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EBRAHIM HAMID/AFP via Getty Images.

Sudan Has Launched an Investigation into Crimes Committed During the Darfur Conflict

The state prosecutor says the investigation will focus on "cases against former regime leaders."

Tagelsir al-Heber, Sudan's state prosecutor, has announced the country's investigation into crimes committed during the Darfur conflict under former President Omar al-Bashir, BBC reports.

The conflict and subsequent crimes committed in the Darfur region from 2003 left around 300,000 people dead and 2.5 million people displaced, France24 adds. Warrants for al-Bashir's arrest were launched by the International Criminal Court (ICC) both in 2009 and 2010 on genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity charges. He has yet to be extradited to face trial for those charges.

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Photo by Ebrahim Hamid/AFP via Getty Images

Sudan Celebrates the Anniversary of the Country's Uprising

It's been one year since the nationwide protests that led to the ousting of then Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir began.

Today marks the one year anniversary since the nationwide protests began in Sudan. The historic uprising led to the ousting of then President Omar al-Bashir and gave way to the current transitional government which consists of members of the military and civil society.

Channel Africa reports that Sudanese civilians have already begun what will be a week of festivities to mark the occasion.

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Photo courtesy of CSA Global.

In Conversation with Congolese NBA Player Emmanuel Mudiay: 'I want more African players in the NBA.'

The Utah Jazz player talks about being African in the NBA, supporting basketball in the DRC and how 'everybody knows about Burna Boy'.

Inspired by his basketball-playing older brothers, by second grade, Emmanuel Mudiay already knew that he wanted to play in the American National Basketball Association. Then in 2001 his family, fleeing the war in Democratic Republic of Congo, sought asylum in the United States.

In America, Mudiay saw basketball as a way for him to improve his situation. After impressive high school and college careers, he moved to China to play pro ball. Picked 7th overall in the 2015 NBA draft, the now 23-year-old guard has made a name for himself this season coming off the bench for the Utah Jazz.

Mudiay attests to the sport having changed not only his life but that of his siblings. Basketball gave them all a chance at a good education and the opportunity to dream without conditions. Now he wants to see other talented African players make it too.

We caught up with him to talk about his experience as an African player in the NBA, his hopes for basketball on the African continent and who he and his teammates jam out to in their locker rooms.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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University lecturer and activist Doctor Stella Nyanzi (L) reacts in court as she attends a trial to face charges for cyber-harassment and offensives communication, in Kampala, on April 10, 2017. (Photo by GAEL GRILHOT/AFP via Getty Images)

Jailed Ugandan Activist, Stella Nyanzi, Wins PEN Prize for Freedom of Expression

The outspoken activist, who is currently serving a prison sentence for a poem she wrote about the president's mother's vagina, won for her resistance "in front of a regime that is trying to suppress her."

Stella Nyanzi, the Ugandan academic, activist, and vocal critic of President Yoweri Museveni has been awarded the 2020 Oxfam Novib/PEN International award for freedom of expression, given to writers who "continue to work for freedom of expression in the face of persecution."

Nyanzi is currently serving a 15 month sentence for "cyber harassment" after she published a poem in which she wrote that she wished "the acidic pus flooding Esiteri's (the president's mother) vaginal canal had burn up your unborn fetus. Burn you up as badly as you have corroded all morality and professionalism out of our public institutions in Uganda."

According to the director of PEN International, Carles Torner, her unfiltered outspokenness around the issues facing her country is what earned her the award. "For her, writing is a permanent form of resistance in front of a regime that is trying to suppress her," said Torner at the award ceremony.

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