Sudan uprising: Second month of demos met with live fire, tear gas

On Tuesday, the Sudan uprising which has been characterised by mass public demonstrations across the country, entered its second month.

The protests and marches, organised by opposition groups including the Sudanese Professionals Association, calling for the immediate step-down of Al Bashir and his regime, continued in the states of Khartoum, Kassala, and El Gezira. The forces signatory to the Declaration of Freedom and Change called for demonstrations in all parts of Sudan on Thursday.

Live ammunition

On Tuesday, residents of the districts of Ombadda and El Sawra in Omdurman and El Haj Yousef in Khartoum North staged mass demonstrations in response to the opposition call. Witnesses said that the security forces once again fired on demonstrators using live bullets, and tear gas to disperse them.

Residents of Omdurman, angered at the killing of El Fateh El Nimeir, a student at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Sudan who was shot in the march on January 17, took part in a mass demonstration near El Shaglaban station in El Sawra Block 9, where the house of the martyr’s family is located.

From Monday evening until dawn on Tuesday, demonstrators continued to cheer and chant slogans condemning the killing of El Nimeir, calling for retribution and the ouster of the regime.

Tear gas

The security forces fired tear gas at the demonstrators in the funeral tent, which led to the occurrence of fainting inside the funeral, then members of the security forces chased the demonstrators in the streets and arrested a number of them.

The residents of El Haj Yousef demonstrated demanding the step-down of the regime where security forces were heavily deployed in the various roads.

Kassala

On Tuesday, the bus station in Kassala witnessed a demonstration demanding the step-down of Al Bashir and the overthrow of the regime in response to a call by the Sudanese Professionals Association in Kassala.

Eyewitnesses from Kassala told Radio Dabanga that dozens of residents took part in the demonstration despite the heavy deployment of security forces, in the public station and all the roads leading to it since the early morning.

They said that security forces intervened and dispersed the demonstration using excessive violence, and arrested dozens of demonstrators. The people of Kassala were cheering.

Yesterday, hundreds of students of the National University in Khartoum held a protest against the dismissal of a number of students against the backdrop of the strike declared at the university.

The security forces used tear gas canisters inside the university to disperse the protesting students.