Sudan Marches of the Millions: New police violence today

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Khartoum, as well as other cities across Sudan today, in the November 30 Marches of the Millions, called by the resistance committees, to express their rejection of the military coup d’état of October 25, and the subsequent political agreement, signed by coup leader Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan and Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok.

In Khartoum, several demonstrators were injured as the marches turned into hit-and-run operations with police when the demonstrators closed a number of main roads using barricades.

The protesters set out in the capital from the various assembly points identified by the resistance committees. They converged on the Republican Palace, chanting slogans against the military component and PM Abdallah Hamdok.

Witnesses told Radio Dabanga that a number of demonstrators received injuries to their heads, hands, and legs, as well as breathing difficulties, from tear gas cannisters and stun grenades used by police.

The Central Committee of Sudan Doctors says that it monitored a number of injuries to the hands, some of them serious, during the demonstrations on El Gasr Street , when demonstrators attempted to throw away stun grenades launched at the marchers by police. The stun grenades exploded and caused severe injuries to the hands.

Activists say that at least 25 were injured by tear gas cannisters, including a fracture of the vertebral chain, another fracture of the collarbone, a severe injury to the nose, and fractures of the bones of the face. They pointed to three injuries from stun grenades, one of them severe, In addition to a number of cases of breathing difficulties.

They explained that the police used excessive violence in the face of the demonstrators on El Arabeen street, during hit-and-run skirmishes between the police and the protestors.

Massive demonstrations went out in Wad Madani, Managil, Sennar, Kosti ,and other cities in central Sudan, while in eastern Sudan, mass marches occurred in Kassala, El Gedaref and Port Sudan. The demonstrations of Kassala turned into a sit-in. In El Gedaref, military intelligence agents detained Wajdi Khalifa, rapporteur of the Empowerment Removal Committee, and activist Ibrahim Saleh, after they addressed the protestors in the city’s market. Intelligence had released Khalifa on Monday after a month-long detention.

Thousands of people also demonstrated in Atbara, Dongola, Ed Damazin, and other towns.

The excessively violent response by the police and intelligence services, using live ammunition and tear gas, against the Marches of the Millions and an ongoing campaign of civil disobedience following the coup d’état of October 25, has left at least 43 dead and hundreds injured in ongoing civil unrest since the coup.

In its update today, the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors (CCSD) says that Nourallah Hamad El Bashir (26) died earlier today from a brain hemorrhage caused by being beaten severely in the head with batons during November 25 processions, raising the death toll to 43.