Thursday, February 2, 2012

Sudan dam protest at president's doorstep

Sudan dam protest at president's doorstep
The Daily Nation (Kenya), February 3, 2012

By AFP - Supporters of residents displaced by a dam north of Khartoum
took their long-running protest to the doorstep of Sudan's president on
Thursday.

About 25 people gathered beside the headquarters of the Sudan Armed
Forces and faced the adjacent home of President Omar al-Bashir, an AFP
reporter saw.

"We call for the rights of people affected by the dam," their signs said.

The peaceful protesters dispersed at the request of security officers.

It is the latest gathering in Khartoum by supporters of residents
displaced by the Merowe dam. City police forcibly broke up two
sympathetic demonstrations in December.

On November 20, about 1,000 people affected by the hydroelectric project
began a sit-in at Al-Damer, a town around 300 kilometres (180 miles)
north of Khartoum, over the government's alleged failure to compensate
them with new homes as promised.

The sit-in continues.

Completed in 2009 at a cost of more than $2 billion (1.5 billion euros),
the Chinese-built development, northwest of Al-Damer, doubled Sudan's
power generation capacity.

But it also forced 15,000 families from their homes three years ago to
make way for the dam and the huge reservoir that formed behind it.
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