Once the success of the protests in Tunisia reminded the world that governments can be changed by a wide spectrum of people and not a political cadre or religious group or opposition politician but the people themselves, those people went to town prodding and testing for weakness.
The people of Algeria, Libya, even Yemen were seen on the streets. But Sudan seems to be hidden behind the Egyptian flare up. Now, crisis mapping shows how deep and widespread the discontent is in that country.
Ushahidi‘s Patrick Meier was contacted by activists in Sudan and, at their request, has put a team of digital activists together to develop a crisis map using Ushahidi’s hosted Crowdmap software. It launched on the 28th, ahead of the big protest that took place yesterday.
The map, “Jan 30 Sudan,” is centered on Sudan’s capital of Khartoum where the overwhelming majority of the 75 recorded incidents have happened. Among them are police beating peaceful demonstrators, the demonstrations themselves, police using gas bombs against med students and Sudanese security forces harassing foreign reporters. There has even been at least one demonstrator, perhaps as many as three, killed.
Most reports are being sent in by email and Skype, some by SMS.
Some traditional press have been covering the events in Sudan, including The Christian Science Monitor, Agence France-Presse and the BBC, but the signal-to-noise ration has been deafening so far.
In part, the possible imminent succession of the South from the North of the country, and its long status as a failed state, may make it murkier and more difficult to understand. However, the existence of the #jan30 map and the work to keep it current may help outside witnesses visualize the reality of the protests there.
Sudan map via Wikipedia Commons
