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| Sudanese student Alaa Salah shot to prominence after an image of her leading demonstrators in chants in Khartoum went viral (AFP Photo) |
Khartoum (AFP) - Sudanese student Alaa Salah emerged as a singing symbol of the protest movement that toppled leader Omar al-Bashir, and now insists she will keep demonstrating until civilian rule is secured.
The
22-year-old engineering and architecture undergraduate shot to prominence when
a picture of her in a white robe leading chanting crowds from atop a car in
Khartoum went viral on social media.
Shortly
after on April 11 the army ousted long-time leader Bashir, but since then a
10-member military council has resisted calls to handover power.
Every
evening Salah heads down to join the crowds still camped out around the army
headquarters in the capital -- leading thousands of demonstrators in singing
out their calls for change.
"We
are staying at the protest site until all our demands are met," Salah said
in an interview with AFP.
"We
want a democratic civilian government and that all corrupt figures of the
previous regime be prosecuted."
Like many
gathered outside the military complex she insists "we don't want just
words, we want actions".
"Bashir
was just the face of the regime, we want the entire regime to be
uprooted."
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Protesters
in Sudan have seen long-time ruler Omar al-Bashir ousted from power
and are now
pushing the new ruling military council to hand over power to a civilian
administration (AFP Photo)
|
'No
political aspirations'
Portraits
of Salah -- dubbed "Kandaka" or Nubian queen online -- have appeared
on murals across Khartoum in the wake of Bashir's fall.
The iconic
image captured her wearing the traditional flowing white headscarf and skirt,
her golden full-moon earrings reflecting in the fading sunset.
The outfit
is a nod to the lead role played by women in the protests that ended three
decades of iron-fisted rule by the veteran leader.
"I
wore this attire as part of an initiative to support the revolution," she
says.
Symbolic
too is the chant that she recites to raise the spirits of the demonstrators.
The words
are those of a well-known Sudanese poem that says "a bullet does not kill,
what kills is the people's silence" -- a sentiment she says aptly captures
Sudan's new spirit of defiance.
The protest
movement in the country initially erupted in December in response to tripling
of bread prices by the authorities.
It swiftly
mushroomed into nationwide demonstrations against Bashir led by an umbrella
group of unions and opposition political groups called the Alliance for Freedom
and Change.
Protest
leaders from the alliance successfully mobilised supporters -- young, old,
women, men, professionals and students -- by posting their calls for
demonstrations online.
"I'm
one of those who took to the streets based on the schedules announced by the
Alliance for Freedom and Change," Salah said.
She also
participated in protests on her campus as the demonstrations on the street drew
a brutal crackdown from the authorities.
Officials
say at least 65 people have been killed in protest-related violence since
December.
Despite her
new-found fame as the face of the uprising, Salah insists that she intends to
limit her involvement in politics to these protests.
"I
have no political affiliation. I am a normal citizen who took to the streets
for the sake of our country," she said.
"I
don't have any aspirations in politics ...but I like to do social work."
#UPDATE A top opposition leader has called for Sudan to join the International Criminal Court which has indicted its ousted president Omar al-Bashir, as protesters and the military met to discuss civilian rule https://t.co/YWZSPPp2eC— AFP news agency (@AFP) 27 april 2019
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