KHARTOUM: Sudanese security forces yesterday blocked activists trying to deliver a petition criticising the government to the country’s human rights commission, drawing a rare rebuke from the state-appointed body.
Sudan has avoided mass “Arab Spring” protests that unseated rulers in Egypt and Tunisia, but President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who seized power in 1989, has faced dissent over a severe economic crisis and corruption.
Before the activists arrived, police and plain clothed security agents, some armed with batons, pulled up in cars and spread out at the front gate to bar entry to the commission, witnesses said. “Plain clothed agents beat several activists trying to submit their petition and also journalists covering the protest,” a witness said.
Reuters
