Day: November 16, 2021

The international community has voiced its dismay and condemnation of the use of excessive force to suppress peaceful demonstrations in Sudan, after tens of thousands of Sudanese joined the Marches of the Millions on Saturday, to protest the coup d’état of October 25 during which a military junta under the leadership of Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan, Commander-in-Chief of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), seized power in the country.

UK Minister for Africa, Vicky Ford, expressed her deep concern over reports of the killing of protesters in Sudan. She stressed the need for the Sudanese to be able to express their views without any fear of violence, and for the military side to listen to the huge numbers calling for the return of the democratic transition.

The US Embassy in Khartoum condemned the excessive use of force against the protesters who came out for freedom and democracy on Twitter their regret for the loss of life and the injury of dozens of demonstrators during the anti-coup protests that broke out in Sudan on Saturday.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called for the protection of medical missions and for the passage of ambulances, to facilitate the work of medical personnel, and demanding that the injured receive the care they need.

Moussa Faki, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, said on Sunday that he will send an envoy to Sudan in the near future to encourage all parties to urgently reach a political solution to this new crisis in the country. He renewed his call for the Sudanese army to engage in a political process that leads to the return of the constitutional order, in line with the Constitutional Document agreed in August 2019 and the Juba Peace Agreement.

The Official Spokesperson of the European Union condemned in the strongest terms the acts of violence committed against peaceful civilian demonstrators on Saturday, 13 November. In a statement, he also expressed concern about the detention of journalists. He renewed his demand for the release of all detainees since October 25.

He said the EU would hold the authorities accountable for the human rights violations and failure to protect civilians, which have occurred since the end of the democratization process. The European Union called on the military to return to the path of fair and open dialogue with civilians, and said that the military’s interventions since last October 25 undermine much of the progress that has been made under the civilian-led government and that this will have serious consequences for EU support. He demanded a return to a comprehensive dialogue that would guarantee freedom, peace, and justice for all in Sudan.

Source: Radio Dabanga

Villagers in Tawila and Dar El Salam in North Darfur reported continued attacks on farmers and villages. Two farmers were shot dead on Saturday. An attack on a village south of Tabit displaced 15 families.

Sources reported to Radio Dabanga from Tawila locality that two farmers were killed on Saturday evening by gunmen riding on camels in the area of Tordi, south of Martal.

They explained that five armed men attacked the farms of Ibrahim Yaqoub (45) and Adam Haroun (37), and shot them dead on the spot.

The army in Martal was informed of the incident, and a report was opened to the police in Tawila.

The sources also said that a group of seven armed men raided the area south of Tabit on Saturday, and set fire to all houses of Kanjour Tana, which led to the flight of all 15 families to Kedarek.

In neighbouring Dar El Salam locality, armed men released their livestock at agricultural lands near Wadi Marra and Jarjira. When the farmers protested, they shot at them. Two farmers were injured.

On Friday, Radio Dabanga reported that an unknown number of residents of the Naivasha camp for the displaced near Shangil Tobaya in Tawila were killed and injured in attacks by militant herders the evening before. In Dar El Salam locality, gunmen burned hundreds of houses in Amgeigou village.

End last month, sources from the area said that the violence surged since the military coup of October 25.

According to Sudan researcher and analyst Eric Reeves, the Arab militiamen in North Darfur “see the coup as a license to resume attacks on non-Arab farmers without fear their crimes will be communicated”.

In a tweet on November 10, Reeves posted a report on the “widespread ethnic violence” in the region, saying that a new wave of displacement is taking place in Tawila. “Around 2018 families have managed to reach Zamzam camp in the past 48 hours,” he stated. Among them are “many women who suffered horrendous beatings-many with broken arms and elbows, many more who suffered blows to the heads.

Source: Radio Dabanga

The “excessive and unjustified violence” used by Sudan’s security forces to suppress Saturday’s Marches of the Millions in Khartoum has been widely condemned. The number of victims has risen to at least eight, as 13-year-old Remaz Hatem El Ata died after being shot in the head in front of her home on Saturday. The Central Committee of Sudan Doctors cay that there were at least 212 injuries during Saturday’s marches, of whom more than 100 received bullet wounds. At least 11 of them are still in critical condition in hospital.

In its report, the doctors’ committee indicated that Omar Abdallah Adam died of a neck injury at Royal Care Hospital on October 25, bringing the death toll since October 25 to 23. They say that Mujahid Farah (15), died on Sunday morning in East Nile Hospital, from bullet wounds to the abdomen and thigh.

The Socialist Doctors Association report that 122 people injured during the demonstrations in Khartoum on Saturday are being treated in El Arbaeen Hospital, Omdurman Teaching Hospital, East Nile Hospital, Royal Care Hospital, and Ibrahim Malik Hospital. Journalist Hamad Suleiman was wounded in the leg by a rubber bullet while covering the 13 November demonstrations.

The Legal Doctors Syndicate said that it had received testimonies from some of the hospitals where the victims of the November 13 marches are being treated that allege the bullets used to suppress demonstrators are of the expanding (dumdum) variety that are internationally prohibited for military use.

The police, however, deny using firearms in dealing with the demonstrators. The Khartoum police press office says they dealt with the demonstrations “with the legal use of tear gas and minimal force”.

In a statement, the office accused the demonstrators of attacking a number of police stations, which resulted in the injury of 39 policemen and noted the burning of a police vehicle belonging to the Police Press Department.

Video clips posted on social media however, documented scenes of police firing live ammunition and the use of excessive violence during the November 13 demonstrations.

Hospital protests

On Monday, the Coordination of Medical Staff organised protest vigils in front of a number of hospitals in Khartoum, Omdurman, Bahri, and state hospitals in rejection of the military coup. And condemning the violations that occurred on health facilities and field teams.

The Central Committee of Sudan Doctors say that on Monday, a security force stormed, Kassala Teaching Hospital, and prevented doctors and health staff from entering the hospital, in anticipation of vigils announced by the Coordination of Medical Staff.

The doctors’ committee says that the vigil was held in front of the hospital in Kassala despite the security presence. Witnesses told Radio Dabanga that two participants in the vigil were detained.

FFC: “Excessive and unjustified violence”

In a statement on Sunday, the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) – the main drivers of the revolution that overthrew the 30-year Al Bashir dictatorship in 2019 – condemned “the excessive and unjustified violence” with which the security forces faced the November 13 demonstrators.

The FFC warned all security forces against proceeding with raiding hospitals, attacking the injured and health personnel, firing live ammunition at peaceful demonstrators, and condemning the closure of roads and bridges, cutting off Internet service, deliberate interference with communications, and campaigns of detentions and frantic pursuit of members of the resistance committees and members of professional bodies. and unionism.

Hamza Baloul, Minister of Information in the transitional government of Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok’s government, who was briefly detained after the coup, said during his address to the November 13 demonstrators in Khartoum that “any coup participant will be held accountable and tried”, and that “there is no choice but the civil state, and no negotiation with the putschists”.

More than 10 professional associations and trade unions, including the Democratic Lawyers Alliance, condemned the violence practiced by the authorities in the face of the peaceful November 13 Marches of the Millions. The professionals also condemned the violence against doctors and health personnel in hospitals by the agencies and the attempt to discourage them from performing their duty.

They also condemned the hindering the transport of the wounded to health centres and hospitals, and preventing them from accessing them.

The associations emphasised the continuation of the revolutionary escalation until the fall of the putschists, and called on all professional and union bodies to engage in the declared revolutionary line, unify their word and align themselves with the rebellious masses.

The Sudanese Professionals Association described what happened in the November 13 million as a “new massacre” and considered it to amount to crimes against humanity punishable by Sudanese law and international covenants, and “we assure all participants that they are monitored and will be brought to prompt trials”.

Trade Unions Federations announced a two-day strike in support of the civil disobedience announced by the revolutionary forces. The assembly condemned the killings, attacks on hospitals and preventing ambulances from moving, saying that they amount to crimes against humanity. They are crimes against humanity that our people will not forgive.

Source: Radio Dabanga