Sudan protesters blockade roads to key Red Sea port

• Sudanese protesters blocked major roads leading to the vital Red Sea port.
• The eastern Beja people of Sudan have criticized parts of the agreement.
• Sudan has been reeling from deepening unrest.

Sudanese protesters blocked major roads leading to the vital Red Sea port on Monday to demand that parts of a 2020 peace deal relating to their eastern region be scrapped.

In October 2020, several rebel groups signed a landmark agreement with a military-civilian transition government that took power shortly after the ouster of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in April 2019.

However, the eastern Beja people of Sudan have criticized parts of the fragile peace agreement, claiming that it does not represent them.

Since last week, hundreds of Sudanese protesters have staged a sit-in demanding the dismissal of the Red Sea state governor, accusing him of supporting the 2020 peace deal.

“The national road is blocked,” an alliance of several Beja tribes said in a statement.

Protest leader Abdalla Obshar told AFP that security forces have sought to break up the sit-in Port Sudan.

“We will not leave,” he vowed.

In September last year, protesters from eastern communities had led similar demonstrations against the same agreement.

That blockade worsened Sudan’s already struggling economy by exacerbating fuel and wheat shortages, heaping pressure on the transitional government of then-prime minister Abdalla Hamdok.

The following month, in October 2021, Sudan’s fragile transition to civilian rule was upended by a military coup led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

Read more: Sudan civilian bloc reject post-coup crisis talks with army

Port Sudan, the country’s main seaport and vital trade hub, was reopened in November.

In December, Sudan’s sovereign council suspended parts of the 2020 peace deal relating to the east pending discussions, but protesters in Port Sudan want the deal abolished.

“Our demands have not been met,” Abdalla Obshar said. “We wanted to scrap the parts about the east completely, and that the central government engages with us in fresh negotiations”.

Sudan has been reeling from deepening unrest, near-weekly protests, and a tumbling economy since last year’s coup, which sparked wide international condemnation and cuts of crucial aid.

The United Nations, the African Union, and the regional IGAD bloc have all called for Sudanese-led talks to break the impasse.

Sudan’s mainstream civilian bloc, which was deposed in the coup, refused to participate in UN-AU-IGAD-mediated direct talks with the military.

Read more: UN rights expert demands accelerated probe into Sudan post-coup killings