Bashing Bashir

A CRACKDOWN by Sudan’s security forces on people protesting against the lifting of fuel subsidies has left dozens of people dead in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country since September 23rd. President Omar al-Bashir’s government was prepared for demonstrations, as its recent austerity measures virtually doubled the price of petrol and cooking gas overnight. But it did not foresee that, in carrying out what human-rights groups have described as a “shoot to kill” policy, the security forces would cause a bigger headache than had the protests themselves.