KHARTOUM (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th September, 2021) Protesters in eastern Sudan said on Saturday that they had blocked an oil pipeline connecting Khartoum with the town of Haiya.
This comes after a group of protesters from the high council of the Beja tribes sneaked into the Port Sudan airport on Thursday and paralyzed its operations. Earlier in the week, members of Sudan's eastern tribes, such as Beja, blocked the road connecting Khartoum and Port Sudan, impeding cargo deliveries between the cities. The tribes demand a change of the Juba peace agreement that was signed last October, as the deal allegedly does not take their interests into account.
"The eastern revolutionaries blocked the Haiya-Khartoum oil pipeline, per the high council decision," the council said in a statement posted on Facebook.
The protesters also seized control of the town's railroad station, which is a part of the railroad line to the Red Sea coast, where the country's key ports, including Port Sudan, are located.
According to local media, the eastern part of Sudan is suffering from the lack of basic social amenities, such as healthcare and education, with its population living in poverty.
In October 2020, the Sovereignty Council, on behalf of the Sudanese government, ratified a comprehensive peace deal with rebel groups affiliated with the Sudanese Revolutionary Front, an alliance of Sudan's political factions created in opposition to the government of former President Omar Bashir, who was toppled in April 2019.
