Sudan Doctors: Two more die of gunshot wounds following Khartoum protests

The number of victims of the November 13 Marches of the Millions in the Sudanese capital increased to seven, after two minors died of gunshot wounds in hospitals in the city. Many condemned the raids on hospitals and hindering of ambulances on the streets on Saturday.

Mujahid Farah (15) died in East Nile Hospital from bullet wounds to the abdomen and thigh on Sunday morning, the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors (CCSD) reported on Sunday. Yesterday, a 13-year-old girl, Remaz El Ata, who was hit in the head by a bullet on Saturday while she was standing in front of her house, died in a hospital as well.  

The Socialist Doctors Association reported the names of the other victims: Mohamed Abakar (35), Abdelhameed Abdelkareem (31), El Sheikh Khater (19), Muhammad Osman (19), and Muzamil Nour (15).

The Association explained in a statement on Sunday that 122 people injured during the demonstrations in Khartoum on Saturday were being treated in El Arbaeen Hospital, Omdurman Teaching Hospital, East Nile Hospital, Royal Care Hospital, and Ibrahim Malik Hospital.

In a statement yesterday however, the CCSD reported that 212 people were injured during the November 13 Marches of the Millions. More than 100 of them were hit by bullets. At least 11 of them are in a critical condition.

In total, 23 people have been killed in Khartoum in protests since the military coup on October 25, the Sudan Doctors said.

The Legal Doctors Syndicate said that it had received testimonies from some of the hospitals in Khartoum that the bullets used to disperse the peaceful demonstrators “are of the kind that spread inside the body (explosive bullets), which are prohibited under international humanitarian law”.

‘Minimal force’

The police in Khartoum denied using firearms in dealing with the demonstrators.

In a statement on Sunday, the Khartoum police press office said they made use of “tear gas and minimal force” to maintain order.

The press office accused the demonstrators of attacking a number of police stations, which resulted in the injury of 39 policemen. He noted the burning of a police vehicle belonging to the Press Police Department.

Video clips posted on social media however, documented scenes of police forces firing live bullets and exerting excessive violence during the November 13 demonstrations.

Hospital raids

In a statement on Sunday, the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) condemned “the excessive and unjustified violence” with which the security forces faced the November 13 demonstrators, “despite the peacefulness of the protests”.

The FFC further strongly denounced the raids of hospitals by government forces, who attacking the injured and the medical staff, and in the case of the El Arbaeen Hospital in Omdurman, detained a number of them.

On Monday, the Medical Staff the Coordination organised vigils in front of a number of hospitals in the Sudanese capital and a number of hospitals in other states in protest against the military coup on October 25, and the attacks on hospitals and health centres.

In Kassala, eastern Sudan, a security force stormed the Kassala Teaching Hospital and prevented the medical staff from entering the hospital on Monday, in anticipation of the vigil.

The Central Committee of Sudan Doctors reported that the vigil was held in front of the Kassala hospital despite the security measures. Sources told Radio Dabanga that two participants in the vigil were detained.

Civil disobedience

More than 10 professionals associations and trade unions as well condemned “the violence practiced by the authorities in the face of the peaceful November 13 Marches of the Millions” and “doctors and other medical personnel in hospitals in an attempt to discourage them from performing their duty”.

They also condemned the hindering of the transport of the wounded to hospitals and clinics, saying that they amount to crimes against humanity.

The professionals announced a two-day strike in support of the civil disobedience actions announced by “the revolutionary forces”.