Criminal case filed against those behind ‘Port Sudan Massacre’

On Wednesday, the Sudanese Prosecutor-General instructed the prosecution office of Red Sea state to file a criminal case against those accused of being involved in the ‘Port Sudan Massacre’ more than ten years ago.

On 29 January 2005, more than 20 Beja demonstrators were killed, and at least 70 were injured, among them women and children, in Port Sudan’s Deim El Arab district. The peaceful protesters called upon the government to allocate more resources to the marginalised region. Hundreds of protesters were detained.

Lawyer Najla Mohamed Ali told the press in Port Sudan on Wednesday that the prosecutor finally accepted the request made by lawyers, according to the decision of the Constitutional Court.

In July, the Constitutional Court ruled that a criminal suit is to be filed against those accused of being involved in the massacre.

Member of the Committee of 29 January victims, Karar Askar, said that “those accused in the case are the Sudanese President, the then State Minister of Interior Affairs, Ahmad Haroun, and the former director of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), Salah Abdallah 'Gosh'.

He added that the attackers targeted demonstrators on an ethnic basis.

The Beja Congress has been calling for an investigation into the 2005 massacre during its annual commemorations of the victims.

Eastern Sudanese have repeatedly complained of marginalisation by the central government. Their region, inhabited mainly by the Beja and Rashaida tribes, is among the poorest in Sudan.

Both President Omar Al Bashir and Ahmed Haroun, currently Governor of North Kordofan, have been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur. Al Bashir is also charged with three counts of genocide.