The Sudanese storm

Liv Tønnessen (CMI) and Sara Abdelgalil (Sudan Doctors Union UK) in conversation with Lovise Aalen (CMI). 

The crackdown on the current uprising against the authoritarian rule of president Omar al-Bashir in Sudan has been brutal. Since the initial days in December 2018, at least 40 people have been killed, and thousands have been imprisoned.

President Bashir came to power through a coup in 1989, and has since ruled the country with an iron fist.

This conversation will shed a light on the particular role of medical doctors in the uprisings and why the national security forces retaliate against hospitals. The panel will also explain the background of the protests and discuss future prospects for this complex country. 

There will be lunch and refreshments, free and open to all.

About the panel

Liv Tønnessen is Research Director at CMI. She is a political scientist researching women, politics and Islam in the Middle East and Northern Africa. Tønnessen has specialized in Sudanese politics for more than a decade. She has conducted extensive fieldworks in the country and she has lectured at Ahfad University for Women. She is heading the ARUS project collaborating with Ahfad, University of Khartoum and seven regional Universities in Sudan.

Sara Abdelgalil is a Paediatrician and head of the Sudan Doctors Union UK.

Lovise Aalen, Research Director at CMI, is a political scientist focussing on the politics in the Horn of Africa. She has a special interest in governance in multiethnic states coming out of civil war, women's political participation and youth activism in authoritarian states in Africa.