In December 2018 large numbers of the Sudanese population began to rise up against the then-President Oman Al-Bashir’s government. In April 2019, the government was toppled by a coup and a military transitional government was put in place. However, the street protests continued and the people demanded a civil government, as well as far-reaching changes in the country’s political power structures. In June 2019, the military, security forces and the RSF Militia carried out a massacre against a peaceful sit-in protest in the capital city Khartum. Hundreds of people were killed, raped and injured. Under the threat of a country-wide general strike, the militia agreed to include civil members in the workings of the transitional government. In July 2019, an agreement on the formation of a sovereign council was signed, which should consist of an equal number of representatives from the military and from the protest movement, and should govern for three years until the implementation of a new constitution.

In her presentation, the activist Lina Rasheed will share her assessment of the recent events in Sudan, as well as her evaluation of the current situation. At the same time, she will address the question of the role of women in the protests in Sudan.

Lina Rasheed is a lawyer. She studied at the University of El Neelain in Khartum and completed her Master’s degree in children’s rights at the University of Fribourg. She has been working as a counsellor since 2014 in the victim’s protection programme Makasi at the FIZ centre, in Zurich, which is an advocacy and support centre for migrant women and female victims of trafficking.

© Olaf Brachem