Sudan’s President Bashir slithers away from responsibility

The dictator’s latest act might be the final straw of his 29-year regime.

The “Cobra Effect” seems to be a fitting description of the events unfolding in Sudan the past week. The term stems from a scheme that British Colonial Government implemented in India. In an effort to curb the poisonous cobra population, the British offered bounty for each snake killed. Initially, their plan was a success. But, opportunistic Indians started breeding snakes for extra income. As soon as the British found out, they scrapped the scheme leading to Indians letting the now worthless snakes free.

The scheme that was supposed to solve the problem made it even worse as the snake population grew even larger than what it was in the first place.

Similarly, the Sudanese Government’s policy that was supposed to help the economy has led to an increase in prices of bread, fuel, and other basic necessities triggering nationwide protests.

Sudan’s economy has slowly been declining over the years and it currently has the world’s highest inflation rate at 69% despite the United States lifting a 20-year-old trade sanction against the country. Pharmacies are running out of medicine because the government just doesn’t have enough currency to refill the stocks. What’s worse is that the Sudanese people wouldn’t be able to afford the medicines even if the pharmacies were to have adequate supply.

Bread prices have increased significantly over the last year, starting at 0.5 Sudanese pound in January 2018, the price is now 3 pounds. This mainly occurred due to the government’s decision to stop importing wheat in the hopes of creating a price war between private companies in Sudan. The plan failed because it resulted in enormous shortages of flour, shutting down local bakeries and causing widespread outrage amongst the citizens.

11 months later, you would think the government might have learned a thing or two from its mistakes but President Omar Al-Bashir went a step further and slashed subsidies on wheat and fuel resulting in a spike in prices.

What started as a protest against higher prices soon became the biggest anti-government protest in Sudan since 2013 with over thousands of people calling for an end to Bashir’s regime.

The Sudanese government released a statement saying that situation was being, “dealt with in a civilised way without repression or opposition.” Which begs the question, what is the government’s definition of civilised? Because security forces used tear gas and live ammunition to stop the protests. 37 people have died and over 88 have been wounded in the past 10 days but that hasn’t stopped the public from protesting.

Besides releasing statements to try to control the narrative, Bashir hasn’t done much to improve the situation. What else can be expected when the President is responsible for “several counts of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity” and had a warrant for his arrest by the International Criminal Court.

At least when the Colonial British found out about their scheme backfiring, they immediately put an end to their scheme. Bashir, instead, has promised to build a museum for the enraged people of Sudan.