Sudan crackdown on protesters: All the latest updates
Sudanese security forces are moving against a protest sit-in camp in the capital, besieging the site, witnesses and protest leaders said.
Machine-gun fire and explosions were heard and smoke was seen rising from the area.
The military move came after a weeks-long standoff with protesters seeking a speedy transition to civilian rule following the overthrow of long-time leader Omar al-Bashir in April.
Here are all the latest updates:
Monday, June 3:
Amnesty calls on UN to consider sanctions on Sudan’s military
Amnesty International has called on the UN Security Council to consider imposing sanctions on members of the Transitional Military Council (TMC).
Sarah Jackson, the group’s deputy regional director for East Africa, said the United Nations body “must consider targeted sanctions on members of the TMC and others involved in the attack”.
The TMC “has completely destroyed the trust of the Sudanese people and crushed the people’s hope for a new era of respect for human rights and respect for the right to protest without fear,” she added.
UN condemns violence, use of excessive force in Khartoum
Antonio Guterres, UN secretary-general, has condemned violence and reports of excessive use of force by Sudanese security forces on civilians, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
Expressing alarm by reports that security forces opened fire inside medical facilities, Guterres urged all parties “to act with utmost restraint”.
He also called unimpeded access to deliver care at the sit-in site as well as hospitals where the wounded are treated, and for the Sudanese authorities to facilitate “an independent investigation into the deaths and to hold those responsible accountable,” Dujarric said.
‘Wrong, outrageous’: World reacts to Sudan crackdown
The deadly military crackdown on Sudanese protesters has prompted global concern with the United States describing the assault as “wrong”.
The African Union, Egypt, Germany and Qatar urged protest leaders and the TMC to return to negotiations, while the United Kingdom warned military rulers the international community “will hold it to account” over Monday’s violence.
Read more here
Death toll rises to 13, bodies seen floating in Nile River
The Central Committee of Sudan Doctors said the TMC has killed another four protesters, including an eight-year-old child. This brings the death toll to 13, with more than 116 others wounded.
However, separate medical sources have put the death toll at at least 24.
The committee also said that according to witnesses, bodies of protesters shot dead by the TMC were disposed of in the Nile River near the site of the protest sit-in, and could be seen floating in the water.
What’s happening in Sudan: Six things to know about the unrest
Weeks after the removal of Omar al-Bashir as the president of Sudan, the fight for civilian rule continues as the TMC refuses to give in to the protesters’ demand to hand over power.
The TMC, led by Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, says it will oversee a transitional period that will last a maximum of two years.
Here are six things to know about the unrest.
Sudan opposition says halting all contact with military
Sudan’s opposition and protest group alliance said on Monday it was halting all contact and negotiations with the country’s military council after security forces launched a deadly raid on a protest sit-in.
The Declaration of Freedom and Change Forces (DFCF) had been in talks with the TMC that took over from al-Bashir in April, but negotiations have stalled in recent weeks.
Death toll rises in raid on sit-in site
The number of people killed in a raid by security forces on a sit-in site in Khartoum has risen to nine, the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors said.
“The number of peaceful protesters killed is increasing rapidly, which makes it hard to count and identify them timely,” the committee said in a statement.
TMC says security forces did not target sit-in site
TMC spokesman Shams al-Din Kabashi told Al Jazeera security forces did not target the sit-in site.
“What is going on is targeting Colombia [a nickname given to the area because of alleged criminal activity there] adjacent to the sit-in area and not targeting the sit-in. Dangerous groups infiltrated among the protesters in the sit-in area,” Kabashi said.
“We believe that a return to negotiations is the quickest way to resolve the problem,” he added.
Security forces ‘firing live ammunition’ inside hospital
The Central Committee of Sudan Doctors said security forces were firing live ammunition inside East Nile Hospital in Khartoum.
Security forces chased peaceful protesters inside the hospital’s compound, the committee added.
Protest leader: Storming of sit-in site a ‘coup’ against uprising
A leader of Sudan’s protest movement on Monday called the storming by security forces of a protest camp in central Khartoum a “coup” against the uprising that led to the overthrow of al-Bashir.
“We will confront it by escalating protests, marches and full civil disobedience,” said Khalid Omar Yousef, a leader of the Declaration of Freedom and Change Forces.
A spokesman for the TMC told Reuters news agency that he expects talks on the civilian transition to resume “today or tomorrow”.
Protesters shot as military tries to clear Khartoum sit-in
Heavy gunfire was heard in Khartoum as security forces moved in to clear a protest camp that has been the central point in the demonstrators’ months-long struggle for civilian rule.
The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors, a medical group linked to protesters, said at least five people were killed and several wounded in the Monday morning raid, which was still in progress.
Updates from April 11-20 (al-Bashir’s removal)
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