A SUDANESE refugee who fled to Belfast in 2016 has spoken out against the military coup in her home country.
It comes after tens of thousands demonstrated against the military takeover of Sudan on Saturday, when up to 12 people were killed and over 100 injured by government forces.
Meanwhile, a protest in support of the Sudanese people was held outside Belfast City Hall on Saturday.
Belfast resident and Sudanese refugee, Twasul Nasraldeen, told the Andersonstown News of her fears for the people of Sudan and appealed for international solidarity against the military regime.
The coup has overturned Sudan's civilian-military power sharing arrangement, which was agreed in 2019 when the country's longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir was deposed amidst mass protests. A key part of the agreement was a transition to full civilian rule, which has since been reneged on by the military.
Last week, under the direction of Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, the military dissolved the Sovereignty Council of Sudan – the country's executive body – and detained its civilian leadership. The coup has been met with mass civilian demonstrations, strikes, and civil disobedience.
Twasul Nasraldeen, who was jailed several times for resisting the Sudan's previous dictatorship, expressed fears for country's civilian population.
"Most of my family are outside Sudan, it was tough and most fled to Gulf countries, but I still have my parents there," she said.
"They're pretty old so they don't participate actively in the protests. I have one of my sisters there with her kids, who are university and school age – I'm concerned about them and everyone else in Sudan."
"We people outside Sudan were very scared and worried," she added.
"We wanted to support civil disobedience, which is going, but we wanted it to be only civil disobedience because it's safer. But people went out anyway, even though they knew people could be killed, and it was done on Saturday.
"People know that it's a long struggle. We were not expecting that they would give power to civilians after Saturday. It's a long battle, but nobody wants the coup again – people are determined.
As well as violently clamping down on demonstrators, the military regime in Sudan has been accused of releasing members of the Muslim Brotherhood, who were ousted and jailed following the 2018/2019 Sudanese Revolution.
"It has made people more determined to continue on with strikes and protests," Ms Twasul said.
The Sudanese native, who now works with locally-based human rights organisation PPR, has welcomed condemnation of the coup by the international community, but has urged nation states to take actions against its leaders.
"There is a lot to do in terms of international solidarity and putting pressure on all countries so that they don't cooperate with this government," she said.
"If they actually put a ban on this military government so they can't travel, meet people, or trade with other countries then it will force them to stop."
