Port Sudan worker's union troubled

Sea Ports Trade Union rejects privatization

(The Sudan Vision) Sea Ports Trade Union's Central Committee announced its rejection to any form of partial or complete privatization of Port Sudan Harbour. The Union issued a statement yesterday in this concern considering the protection of the workers' interests.

For its part, the Executive Office of Sudan Workers Trade Union announced during its yesterday's meeting its support to Sea Ports Trade Union considering that privatization will lead to dismissal of workers.

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There are thousands of Beja workers in Port Sudan Harbour. In the past few years, there have been various modernization efforts at the harbour. China invested $79 million [US?] to deepen the channels and install a container handling facility. This put thousands of stevedores out of work. Most labouring gangs of dockworkers who would unload ships are from Beja tribes.

The pic is probably from mid 1990's



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Fishermen attacked

The report does not state that the fisherman were Beja, or, perhaps Beni Amer. There are not many Beja fishermen, but there are some. Beja may hold that bad spirits are in the water, and generally avoid seagoing activities.

AFP, Khartoum -- At least 25 people were injured when around five fishing boats were attacked
by unknown assailants in the Red Sea off Sudan on Friday, a security official said. The fishing
craft came under attack in Sudanese waters in the Red Sea from assailants whose identity and
method of operation have yet to be established, the official told AFP. The injured were taken to
hospital in Port Sudan, the main coastal town, north of where the attacks took place. Ten of the
fishermen were seriously wounded, an official at a local hospital said, noting that six are
Eritreans.

http://www.unmis.org/english/2009Docs/mmr-jan18.pdf