Hundreds of Sudanese protesters demonstrated in Khartoum's twin city Omdurman on Monday after one person died of wounds suffered at an anti-government rally last week.
Angry mourners chanted against the government as the body of Al Fatih Omar Al Nimeer, a final-year engineering student, was brought home from the hospital where he died after being wounded in the east Khartoum neighbourhood of Burri on Thursday.
"People are chanting freedom, freedom and overthrow, overthrow as they gathered for the funeral of the protester," a witness told AFP.
Another protester, a doctor, also died in those clashes. On Monday, about 150 doctors held a silent sit-in to protest the death of Babiker Abdelhamid outside the Khartoum hospital where he used to work.
A month of largely peaceful protests demanding the resignation of Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir is posing perhaps the greatest challenge to the autocratic leader since he seized power in a 1989 coup, and show no sign of abating.
Officials say 26 protesters have died so far. Opposition group the Sudanese Communist Party says 47 have been killed.
The protests began on December 19 after the government cut bread subsidies, and despite a violent crackdown by the country’s security forces have lasted longer than previous protests in 2012 and 2013.
The Sudanese Professionals Association, an umbrella group of outlawed independent unions that have broken away from the state-controlled syndicates, is organising the protests. The involvement of the country's educated classes is significant, analysts say, given their role in bringing down previous Sudanese governments in 1969 and 1985.
Protesters say they have learnt to plan marches and to organise on social media from watching the 2011 Arab uprisings, which toppled the government of neighbouring Egypt. "We have used tactics employed by the Egyptians, Tunisians and Syrians but we have so far refrained from pelting security forces with rocks or firebombs," one protester told the Associated Press.
Security forces have not shown such restraint, using teargas, rubber bullets and live ammunition to disperse protesters. Emergency laws and night-time curfews have been imposed in some cities, while in others classes at schools and universities have been suspended.
Authorities have imposed a media power cut on local coverage of the protests, and also blocked access to social media while apparently restricting 3G networks during protests. The media crackdown was extended on Tuesday, as security officials withdrew the work permits of Al Jazeera correspondents in the country, according to the Qatari channel.
Security forces have arrested hundreds of protest leaders, doctors, lawyers, journalists and students. National Intelligence and Security Service forces have been accused of cutting female protesters' hair, threatening detained female protesters with rape and reportedly torturing prisoners to reveal the names of protest leadership. "The police in uniform are restrained compared to NISS forces," said one protester who spoke to The National.
Mr Al Bashir has publicly ordered an investigation into “recent events”, referring to protester deaths, but also insisted that security forces were not responsible for all of them. A similar probe into the death of protesters in 2013 came to nothing.
Despite the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet expressing her concern about the use of excessive force against the protesters, regional powers, including immediate neighbour Egypt, is so far sticking with Mr Al Bashir in the name of stability.
As the protests continue, Mr Al Bashir travelled to Qatar on Tuesday to meet Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. The two leaders were scheduled to meet on Wednesday to discuss ways to promote "fraternal relations", state media reported.
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Read more:
Sudan's professionals lead calls for Omar Al Bashir to step down
Persistent protests testify to deep-rooted anger in Sudan
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Despite the duration of the demonstrations, protest numbers have so far mostly been in the hundreds, rather than the tens or hundreds of thousands who took to the streets in Tunisia and Egypt in 2011.
But protesters say their movement is gaining momentum. "All that we do now is to prepare Sudan's streets, so when zero hour arrives, the entire country will be ready to go out on the streets," Aseel, 25, told AP.
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The view from The National
Ahmed Raza
UAE cricket captain
Age: 31
Born: Sharjah
Role: Left-arm spinner
One-day internationals: 31 matches, 35 wickets, average 31.4, economy rate 3.95
T20 internationals: 41 matches, 29 wickets, average 30.3, economy rate 6.28
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The Cairo Statement
1: Commit to countering all types of terrorism and extremism in all their manifestations
2: Denounce violence and the rhetoric of hatred
3: Adhere to the full compliance with the Riyadh accord of 2014 and the subsequent meeting and executive procedures approved in 2014 by the GCC
4: Comply with all recommendations of the Summit between the US and Muslim countries held in May 2017 in Saudi Arabia.
5: Refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of countries and of supporting rogue entities.
6: Carry out the responsibility of all the countries with the international community to counter all manifestations of extremism and terrorism that threaten international peace and security
