Street artists colour Sudan’s revolution

Murals have been mushrooming on the walls around the military headquarters in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, as thousands keep up a vigil to see a return to civilian rule. Crowds converged on the area on 6 April and five days later, long-time leader Omar al-Bashir was ousted and arrested by the military after nearly 30 years in power. Muwfaq, a student at the University of Khartoum, says the piece he is painting shows how the people of Sudan have broken the chains that have kept them silent for so long. BBC News reports that the area of the sit-in protest is now the beating heart of the city. An art collective has formed there – and a dove mural, expressing the freedoms achieved so far, marks the entrance to the vocational training centre. Many of the artworks use of the blue, yellow and green colours of Sudan's first flag, from independence in 1956 – some with a nod to UK graffiti artist Banksy. The old flag was dropped in 1970 by a military junta, which adopted the current pan-Arab colours of red, white, black and green.