OMDURMAN, Sudan: Protests this week in Sudan over the rising cost of bread have claimed 22 lives, Sudanese opposition leader Sadiq Al-Mahdi said on Saturday, although officials gave a lower death toll.
A government decision to raise the price of a loaf of bread from one Sudanese pound to three (from about two to six US cents) sparked demonstrations across the country on Wednesday.
The protests first erupted in the eastern city of Atbara before spreading to Al-Qadarif, also in eastern Sudan, and then to the capital Khartoum and twin city Omdurman and other areas.
Two demonstrators were killed in Atbara and six others in Al-Qadarif, officials said on Thursday, as protesters torched offices of the ruling National Congress Party of President Omar Al-Bashir.
But according to Mahdi “22 people were martyred and several others wounded.”
Speaking to reporters in Omdurman, on the west bank of the Nile, Mahdi said the protest movement “is legal and was launched because of the deteriorating situation in Sudan.”
He said that demonstrations will continue to rock Sudan.
Government spokesman Bashar Jumaa on Friday warned that authorities “will not be lenient” with those who set state buildings on fire or cause other damage to public property.
It was Mahdi’s first news conference since he returned to Sudan on Wednesday after almost a year in exile.
A fixture of Sudanese politics since the 1960s, Mahdi was prime minister from 1966 to 1967 and again from 1986 to 1989.
His government was the last one to be democratically elected in Sudan, before it was toppled by a 1989 coup launched by Bashir.
Since then Mahdi’s Umma Party has acted as Sudan’s main opposition group and has regularly campaigned against the policies of Bashir’s government.
Sudan has been facing a mounting economic crisis over the past year.
The cost of some commodities has more than doubled, inflation is running at close to 70 percent and the pound has plunged in value.
Shortages have been reported for the past three weeks across several cities, including Khartoum.
Protests broke out in January over the rising cost of food, but they were soon brought under control with the arrest of opposition leaders and activists.
Also on Saturday, Sudan’s national news agency SUNA reported that Bashir appointed a senior officer from the powerful National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) as governor of Al-Qadarif.
Mubarak Mohammed Shamat will replace Mirghani Saleh who was killed in a helicopter crash on December 9, SUNA said.
Sudan opposition leader says 22 killed in bread protests
Sudan opposition leader says 22 killed in bread protests
- The protests first erupted in the eastern city of Atbara before spreading to Al-Qadarif, also in eastern Sudan, and then to the capital Khartoum
- Government spokesman Bashar Jumaa on Friday warned that authorities “will not be lenient” with those who set state buildings on fire
Southeast Asian countries repatriate nationals from Cambodia as thousands flee scam centers
- Almost 2,800 Indonesians have sought consular support to return home since mid-January
- Malaysia, Philippines also repatriate citizens after Cambodian PM orders crackdown on crime networks
Southeast Asian countries are repatriating their nationals from Cambodia, as thousands are estimated to have fled scam compounds over recent weeks following Phnom Penh’s pledge for a fresh crackdown on the multibillion-dollar industry.
Scam centers have flourished in parts of Southeast Asia in recent years, with hundreds of thousands of people lured to work in illicit operations in countries like Cambodia and Myanmar, according to a 2023 report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
A wave of foreign nationals who were either released or have escaped from scam compounds across Cambodia since mid-January have returned to their home countries in the past week after seeking consular support from their respective embassies, officials said.
“The number of Indonesians formerly involved with online scam syndicates who are reporting to the Indonesian Embassy in Phnom Penh continues to increase. Since Jan. 16 to Jan. 30, we have recorded 2,795 Indonesian nationals,” the Indonesian Embassy in Phnom Penh said in a statement on Saturday.
At least 36 Indonesian nationals were repatriated on Friday, while another 30 are scheduled to return to Indonesia over the weekend.
Malaysia has also “rescued and repatriated” 29 Malaysians from Cambodia who were “victims of an online syndicate,” its embassy in Phnom Penh said earlier this week, while the Philippines repatriated 13 Filipinos identified as human trafficking victims last Sunday, the Department of Migrant Workers in Manila said in a statement.
Human rights organization Amnesty International estimated that thousands of people have been released or escaped from at least 17 scamming compounds across Cambodia in recent weeks, with interviews indicating that some were “subjected to grave abuses including rape and torture.”
The survivors are also from countries beyond the region, including Brazil, Nigeria, and Bangladesh, Amnesty said, as it called out the Cambodian government for ignoring the growing humanitarian crisis.
“This mass exodus from scamming compounds has created a humanitarian crisis on the streets that is being ignored by the Cambodian government. Amid scenes of chaos and suffering, thousands of traumatized survivors are being left to fend for themselves with no state support,” said Montse Ferrer, Amnesty International’s regional research director.
“This is an international crisis on Cambodian soil. Our researchers have met people from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. They are in urgent need of consular assistance in order to help get them home and out of harm’s way.”
The latest development comes after Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet ordered authorities to step up efforts to eradicate online scam networks in the country, a directive that was followed with the arrest of several key figures.
Among those arrested was Chen Zhi, a Chinese-born Cambodian tycoon, who was extradited to China earlier this month.
Chen was sanctioned by the UK and the US in October last year, with the US Department of Treasury accusing him of running “a transnational criminal empire through online investment scams targeting Americans and others worldwide.”
The Global Anti-Scam Alliance estimates that $442 billion was lost to scammers in 2025.
