Inspiring Videos from Sudan as 'Protest Queen' Goes Viral

Mass anti-government protests have been taking place in Sudan for the past few days in a noticeable escalation since the protests first broke out in December 2018.

On Saturday, Sudanese protesters gathered outside the military headquarters in the capital, Khartoum in a sit-in calling president Omar Bashir to step down.

Clashes have erupted between security forces and protesters leading elements of the national military to move to protect the protesters after seven people were reportedly killed and dozens injured.

The escalation believed to be gaining momentum inspired by demonstrations in Algeria where mass protest succeeded in pressuring the long-ruling president, Abdel Aziz Bouteflika into resignation.

For five days now, Sudanese have gone to streets in nationwide protests amid poor media coverage, internationally and regionally.

Yet on Tuesday, the internet was flooded with news, photos and videos from Sudan thanks to one picture of a woman standing on a car roof and leading fellow protests chanting “Revolution” while she is singing capturing the attention. She was dubbed as the Sudanese "Statue of Liberty".

The iconic photo showed a Sudanese woman, identified later as 22-year-old student Alaa Salah, proving the significance of women leading protests in Sudan, which has been going throughout the history of the country for decades.

A conversation has sparked online on womens' role in the frontline of revolutions. Users also went to break down the imagery of Alaa Salah’s viral photo and the symbolism it holds.

With international media shedding more lights on the ongoing protests in Sudan, activists on social media shared more footage from the mass protests that were described as the largest in around 50 years since independence.

More videos for Sudanese women in the protests have been shared.

The sit-in is expected to continue until the president acknowledges their demands and step down. Protests even continue in the night where the day protesters go home to return the next day, and it has been going on for five days now.

Other pictures from inside the sit-in have also been gaining popularity showing the protesters’ insistence on staying until Bashir leaves.

Scenes of hundreds if not thousands of protesters gathering outside the army headquarters and even the presidential compound were also viral.

Translation: “Unbelievable feeling!”

Protests in Sudan started in December 2018 when people went to protest the increase in tax and bread prices. However, it all escalated and protesters raised the stakes, demanding both the government and long-term ruling president Omar Bashir leave office in what seems to be similar to the Arab Spring uprisings that hit many countries in the Middle East since 2011.

Despite social media censorship, electricity cuts and telecommunication interruptions, Sudanese are still keen to show that their protests spread among different media organizations to reach the world.