SUDAN ''GRAFFITI- ARTISTS'' SUPER

WITH the fall of veteran leader Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's long stifled graffiti artists are finally able to express their art, painting the country's revolution in murals and portraits flourishing across Khartoum's walls.

Inspired by month long protest movement that finally toppled Bashir on April 11, several artists are using the walls near the army headquarters as a canvas.

The once grey walls close to the complex, where thousands of protesters remain encamped, are full of large clenched fists and victory signs symbolic of the popular uprising that ended Bashir's rule.

Bright murals of  Sudanese flags and portraits of protest leaders have also come up near the complex.

''It was unimaginable to paint any wall without a permit, let alone around the army building, but this revolution has changed everything,'' said Lotfy Abdel Fattah, who specialises in fine art.

''Even if it's wiped out some day, the drawings will leave an everlasting mark on people's minds,'' the 35-year old told AFP.

For years such artwork remained underground underground amid censorship imposed by heavy-handed security agents, who considered it anti-establishment or pure vandalism.

But artists say everything has changed on April 6, when thousands of protesters broke through security cordons and and massed outside the army headquarters.

They braved volleys of tear gas to demand the military depose Bashir after three decades, while a day later graffiti artists began publicly exhibiting their work at the protest site and elsewhere in Khartoum.

Tell the Story:
''People welcomes our drawings, and we felt we should start painting all the walls,'' said 26-year old Amir Saleh, a graffiti artist working on a mural outside the military complex.

''All of these walls were empty. We, along with other artists have filled them graffiti,'' added Saleh, who took part in anti-Bashir rallies from December.

''We just wanted to tell the story of what's happening here.''

Saleh said many of the designs reflect the protest movement's catchery of ''freedom-peace-justice.'' [Agencies]