ATBARA, Sudan - Standing on the platform where he and other protesters packed a train to Khartoum in April to pressure Sudan’s military to share power with civilians, Abdelaziz Abdallah made clear the revolution driven by their city has much further to go.
People in Atbara, a colonial-era railway hub, support the national government in the capital some 350 km to the south but say some of the main grievances which drove their uprising - poor salaries and unemployment - remain. Able to meet freely since bans on gatherings were lifted with Bashir’s fall, they discuss issues such as how to create jobs for the youth by trying to find farmland to grow crops.
Maps entitled “Sudan railways” still hang on walls in administrative buildings where receipts printed in English and Sudanese lie on abandoned desks. Hamdok is in a similar situation, heading a government shared with the military. He wants to increase public salaries and compensate some 4,000 workers fired by Bashir but needs up to $5 billion in donor support for next year alone.“Honestly we have fears if the main issues aren’t solved,” said 70-year Ali Abdallah, a former national head of the railway union imprisoned under Bashir and now a respected figure among the townspeople.
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