Press conference to clarify violent Friday protest in Khartoum

People in El Gereif East in Khartoum plan to hold a press conference on Wednesday to clarify the circumstances of the bloody events on Friday, which claimed the lives of three people. Other demonstrators were wounded, and dozens were reportedly detained.

A representative of El Gereif East, the Member of Parliament Mahdi Shamseldin, called for the formation of an independent commission to investigate the use of excessive force by the security authorities in their attempt to break up the peaceful protest on Friday.

Shamseldin: “I do not rule out that, in the event of any delay in the course of the investigation, the Interior Minister will be interrogated about his role in these events.”

Hundreds of residents in El Gereif East staged a peaceful demonstration last Friday and Saturday, to protest that the authorities has deprived plots from their owners. In an attempt to disperse the mass, the police fired live bullets and used tear gas. Three people were killed, among them Ahmed Obaid (photo). Dozens were detained. It is said that the police even chased down some demonstrators to their homes.

The Sudanese capital was shaken by violence from security forces against similar demonstrations earlier this year. In February, residents of Halfaya district, Khartoum North, took to the street on a Friday afternoon to protest against the sale of their lands by authorities to investors. The police beat them with batons and used tear gas.

Residents of El Hamadab have been regularly demonstrating against the authorities' sale of their plots since mid-2014.

The photos below, made during and after the demonstration in El Gereif on Friday, may be considered shocking.