Sudan lifts Laws on Prohibition on Alcohol and rollback Islamist Laws.

Sudan’s Minister for Justice Al-Din Abdel- Bari through a miscellaneous amendment Act of 2020 has lifted some of the countries decade Islamic laws that prohibited the sale and consumption of alcohol , the treatment of women and religious restrictions that characterized the rule of former President Omar al Bashir

The ban on alcoholic drink has been in place since the former President Jaafar Nimeri introduced Islamic law in Sudan in 1983 by throwing bottles of whisky in the river Nile in Khartoum City. The justice minister in a televised interview in Khartoum explained that the death penalty for apostasy and whipping as judicial punishment’s were also abolished.

Under the new rules , Sudan’s Non-Muslims who make up less than 3 % of the country’s population will be allowed to import alcohol from abroad to sell and drink. The Minister had previously announced another rule which criminalized female genital mutilation, a practice that the UN estimate s affects 9 in 10 girls in Sudan.

The transition Government led by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok entered into a coalition government with the Military after the ouster of former President Omar Al- Bashir, has come under increasing pressure to reform the country along democratic principles, including laws that were used to oppress women and deny freedom of worship to Christians. Nimeri’s introduction of Islamic law was the major catalyst for 22 years long war between Sudan’s Muslims and Christians that led to secession and formation of the Nation of South Sudan in 2011.

Immediately the ban on alcohol was lifted , bottles of whisky, rum, beer appeared in shops in major towns Khartoum, Omdurman, Bahri. as seen in the pictures w.