How young Sudanese are still fighting for democracy
The youthful committees that toppled Sudan’s dictator have not given up
Civil-society activism in Africa can sometimes seem like an exercise in empty sloganeering: “mobilising the grassroots”, “empowering the youth”, and so on. Not in Sudan, where in recent years thousands of neighbourhood “resistance committees” have sprung up throughout the country. Forged in 2018 in the furnace of revolt, they began as autonomous networks of local protesters aimed at toppling Omar al-Bashir, an Islamist despot accused of genocide by the International Criminal Court, and at shepherding the country towards democracy.
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “La résistance”
Middle East & Africa January 21st 2023
- Turkey eyes reconciliation with a Syrian regime it tried to topple
- Binyamin Netanyahu rushes to take on Israel’s Supreme Court
- Iran and its Arab neighbours are divided over a name
- How young Sudanese are still fighting for democracy
- South Africa’s disintegrating freight railway is crippling firms
- Why Zimbabwe’s schools have taken to selling chickens
From the January 21st 2023 edition
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