Another protester killed and journalist detained during yesterday’s anti-coup protests in Sudan

The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors (CCSD) reported that a young man was killed during anti-junta demonstrations in Omdurman yesterday afternoon. Protest marches were also held in Khartoum, in which a journalist was arrested.

in a field report, the doctors said that Hashem Mirghani was most likely killed by a cartridge weapon as he died from injuries of birdshot pellets in his chest and abdomen. At least 104 protesters have been killed in Sudan since the coup d’état of October 25 last year.

The doctors’ committee said that the protest marches against the military coup regime were subjected to “excessive violence practiced by the coup authority forces without moral scruples”.

Demonstrators told Radio Dabanga live from the Sudanese capital that many of them were injured by bullets and tear gas canisters in both Khartoum and Omdurman. They also said that the authorities used excessive violence in confronting the protesters with heavy firing of bullets and tear gas.

The authorities detained dozens of demonstrators during the protests.

The demonstrations in Khartoum and Omdurman were called for by the resistance committees and moved from the various assembly points towards the Republican Palace in Khartoum and the National Parliament building in Omdurman.

The authorities pre-empted the processions by closing the Mak Nimir Bridge between central Khartoum and Khartoum North (Bahri) and heavily deploying security forces.

The protesters nevertheless managed to reach El Gasr [Palace] Street leading to the Republican Palace and closed a number of roads in the adjacent Soug El Arabi area with barricades.

'Protesters are subjected to excessive violence practiced by the coup authority forces without moral scruples' – CCSD

Journalist arrested

Police forces briefly held journalist Hanadi Osman in Khartoum yesterday morning. The police accused her of distributing foreign funds to the anti-coup protesters.

She was released in the middle of the night after they questioned her for hours in several Khartoum Intelligence offices.

Osman told Dabanga Sudan in the early hours this morning, after her release, that she went out at 11 am yesterday for an appointment with a dentist at the Mujahid Yasin Clinic near the Bashdar crossing in El Deyoum El Shargiya, south of the Khartoum city centre.

Bashdar is a well-known meeting point for pro-democracy protesters, including for yesterday’s anti-coup demonstrations that start at 1:00 pm.

She explained that policemen in civilian clothes stopped her car and forcibly opened its doors, which damaged a door, and violently searched the car.

After finding her British passport during the inspection process, the men immediately accused her of providing foreign funding to the protesters and took her with the car to the investigation offices in Khartoum.

Osman explained them that she is a journalist and that she came to this place to meet the dentist according to a prior appointment and that their accusations were pure fabrication and baseless lies.

She explained that she was investigated and questioned in several departments of the Central Investigation Bureau in Khartoum, after which they filed a complaint against based on accusations of providing foreign funding for the demonstrations.

Osman further said that she was only released after she had written a pledge not to appear in places of “non-peaceful demonstrations”.

Press freedom has been increasingly under attack since the October 25 military coup and journalists face increasingly dangerous circumstances, such as arbitrary arrest, harassment, or assault.