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1/7/2022–|Last update: 1/7/202201:39 PM (Mecca)
Sudanese forces again fired tear gas at hundreds of protesters in Khartoum on Friday in protest against military rule, after one of the bloodiest days of protests this year.
Protesters in the Sudanese capital near the presidential palace chanted slogans such as “the people want to drop the proof” and “we demand revenge.” 2021. Most of the victims were killed by live bullets, including a minor.
Local activists broadcast live scenes from today’s demonstrations, showing security forces firing tear gas at the demonstrators.
Demonstrations were organized on June 30, the anniversary of the coup of former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir against the democratically elected government in 1989, as well as the anniversary of the 2019 mass rallies that prompted the military to involve civilians in government after the overthrow of al-Bashir.
The demonstrations came yesterday, Thursday, in response to a call by activists on social networking sites for protests under the hashtag “Millionaire, June 30 earthquake” to protest against the coup and to demand the return of power to civilians.
Earlier today, the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors announced that the death toll from Thursday’s demonstrations had risen to 9, amid local and external condemnations of targeting civilians, while the police accused the protesters of throwing petrol bombs and stones, injuring dozens of their members.
The Doctors Committee – to Al-Jazeera – said that the number of injured during the protests yesterday, Thursday, exceeded 500, some of them with live and rubber bullets and tear gas canisters, noting that at least 6 of the dead were killed “by direct bullets to the chest, head, back or abdomen.”
For its part, the Sudanese police said that there is information about the death of 6 people, and there were no reports of them to police stations in Khartoum state.
The police accused the demonstrators of using petrol bombs and stones, which led to dozens of injuries to the army and police.
She also said that the demonstrators defied the decisions of the State Security Committee Khartoum They tried to access sovereign websites.
The Forces for Freedom and Change (the former ruling civil coalition) said – in a statement posted on Facebook on Thursday evening – that “as expected, the coup authority met the peaceful processions of our people throughout Sudan with bullets and the utmost forms of violence.”
The statement added, “The June 30 million (…) proved that the revolution is alive and does not die. Eight months after the coup that plunged one of the world’s poorest countries into an economic and political crisis, the demonstrators are still demanding the return of power to civilians.”
Deeply concerned and saddened by reports of deaths among protestors today in Sudan and use of live fire by authorities and aggression against medical professionals.
— Lucy Tamlyn (@USCDASudan) June 30, 2022
international concern
The tripartite mechanism in Sudan (consisting of the United Nations, the African Union and the governmental body IGAD and which supports a political solution in the country) condemned “in the strongest terms” the excessive use of force by security forces in the face of protests yesterday.
Yesterday, Thursday, the US Embassy in Sudan expressed its concern about reports indicating deaths among protesters.
In a tweet to the Chargé d’Affairs of the US Embassy in Khartoum, Lucy Tamlin said, “We are deeply concerned and saddened by the reports of deaths among protesters today in Sudan, the use of live ammunition by the authorities and attacks on medical professionals.”
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, also expressed his concern about the continued use of excessive force by the Sudanese government forces to confront the demonstrations.
Dujarric said the role of the security forces in any country should be to protect people’s right to demonstrate, not obstruct it.
The protests come on the third anniversary of massive demonstrations during the 2019 uprising that toppled the rule of Omar al-Bashir and led to a power-sharing arrangement between civilian groups and the military.
Decisions of the army chief, Lieutenant-General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, overthrew the transitional government last October, which sparked mass protests calling on the army to stay away from politics.