Johannesburg – Sudanese political activists launched a civil disobedience campaign on Monday to protest Khartoum's recent austerity measures and its crackdown on civil liberties.
Opposition activists and military groups expressed support for a general strike and called on their supporters to play their part and support the campaign.
The planned campaign followed on the heels of a previous three-day civil disobedience campaign in late November, the Sudan Tribune reported on Sunday.
However, government officials dismissed the planned campaign as a "big zero" and "nonsense". President Omar al-Bashir went further, stating that his government wouldn't be overthrown by "WhatsApp" activists who hid behind their keyboards.
The National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) recently intensified its crackdown on newspapers for publishing news reports and articles on the nationwide civil disobedience act.
During the last three weeks, authorities have seized copies of various dailies 23 times. As part of a sweeping arrest campaign, more than 40 opposition figures from the Sudanese Congress Party (SCoP), National Umma Party (NUP), Sudanese Communist Party (SCP), Arab Ba'ath Party, National Alliance Forces (NAF) as well as civil society activists and journalists, have been detained.
But Khartoum has downplayed the crackdown on the media and denied that it was holding political activists in detention, nevertheless emphasising that it had the right to take the necessary measures to maintain security and stability in Sudan.