Medics protest attacks on hospitals in Sudanese capital

On Sunday, doctors in Khartoum organised a demonstration to protest the violence used by government forces against hospitals treating wounded protesters. Resistance committees in Khartoum denounce the authorities’ attempts ‘to demonise them’.

The medics marched to the office of the Public Prosecution, condemning the various attacks on medical personnel and injured people in hospitals and the firing of tear gas inside the wards.

In a speech on behalf of the Joint Doctors Office, Doctor Ihsan Fagiri said that the attacks on hospitals constitute a violation of international humanitarian law. She called on the Public Prosecution to protect the peaceful demonstrations, and called for justice for the protesters killed and injured since the military coup d’état of October 25, and for the women protesters who were raped during the Marches of the Millions on December 19.

During recent Marches of the Millions against the coup in the Sudanese capital, government forces threw tear gas canister and chased wounded protesters inside hospitals.

Slander

On Friday, a force wearing civilian clothes and driving unmarked vehicles without plates detained protesters wounded during the January 13 demonstrations and their companions as they were leaving the Royal Care Hospital in eastern Khartoum. It is not known where the detainees are being held.

The authorities hold these protesters responsible for the killing of a police brigadier last week. Various Sudanese however reported on social media that Brig Ali Bereima died a week before.

Advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of the Sudan Armed Forces, Brig El Taher Abu Haja said on Friday that the demonstrators against the military rulers “are working without knowledge against the homeland, democracy, and the stability of the transitional period. “Their goal is to slander the Armed Forces and the security system as an enemy of the people, and to escape the elections,” he said. In statements in December, he spoke about sabotage. “Some elements exploit the climate of freedom negatively by creating chaos,” he claimed.

In a statement on Sunday, the resistance committees active in the neighbourhoods of Khartoum in turn condemned the authorities’ targeting of their members, and members of the Angry Without Borders and the Kings of Clashes groups. The statement denounced the authorities’ attempts “to demonise them, and tarnish their image by trying to attribute the killing of a police brigadier last week to peaceful revolutionaries”.

The resistance committees “hold the military council fully responsible for the safety and security of the detainees”, demand to know where they are being held. They should be allowed to receive medical care and meet with lawyers.

They further called on all Sudanese to join the Marches of the Millions scheduled for today.

The Central Command Council of the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) as well condemned “the systematic violence the brutal coup authorities are still committing against the revolutionaries”.

In a statement yesterday, the FFC coalition of pro-democracy groups and parties also announced it decided to cancel the membership of the Republican Party, led by Haydar El Safi, and the National Unionist Party, chaired by Yousef Zein), due to “their divergence from the political line and the declared goals of overthrowing the putschists”.