Sudan Feature: The Activists Who Seek an Uprising (Bayoumy/Dziadosz)

Students protest in Khartoum, 20 June 2012

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The government denies using excessive force against protesters or carrying out torture, and dismisses the activists as a handful of agitators with little support among the public. Mainstream opposition parties say they sympathize with protesters, but have been lukewarm at best in support.

Still, a hard core of anti-Bashir activists are trying to spark a popular revolt to end his 23-year rule, devising tactics as they go to overcome the many obstacles to public dissent in the vast, ethnically-divided country.

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Sudan Feature: Can Activists Maintain Hope Amid Waning Protests? (Peterson)

France 24 on "Khartoum's Revolution"

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"They are geniuses, we must admit this," says an engineering student activist, about the regime's ability to survive political and economic crises. "They manipulate Sudanese minds and know how to do it, to tell people what they want to hear. Now, for example, people are tortured, but you would not know it unless it happened to a relative. But the economic crisis has made people open their eyes more."

Those who have taken to the streets are mostly activists, says this student, who like other activists interviewed for this story asked not to be named. "But a regular Sudanese is just sitting in his house saying, 'Good work,'" says the student. "They are not physically engaged."

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Sudan Primer: Happy Elbow Lick Day? Activists Look to Expand Protests

The activist call for support for today's protests

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After almost two weeks of protests in the capital Khartoum and other cities,  fostered by the regime's austerity measures, Sudan's activists hope to increase the numbers on the streets today.

The regime's security apparatus has started to flex its muscles in response. The opposition claims hundreds have been arrested so far, including bloggers, human rights activists, and members of the influential organisation Girifna. Some foreign journalists have been expelled, and there are reports of limitation and cut-off of the Internet.  In the circumstances, some protesters have been sheltering in safe houses. 

The opposition is defiant, however as the title of today's demonstration, Elbow Lick Day, testifies. It is a "tribute" to President Bashir, who said this week that it would be easier to "lick your elbow" than to remove him from power.

Sudan has flirted with joining the Arab Spring twice in the past 18 months. Whether this occasion will be the lasting spark is far from certain. However, it is likely to show that the Bashir regime is not immune from the calls for democracy and justice. 

Developments can be followed on Twitter via the hashtag #SudanRevolts.