Two injured as paramilitaries attempt to break-up Central Darfur sit-in

Two people were wounded in an attempt by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Sudan’s main government militia, and members of the security apparatus to break the sit-in in front of the 21st Infantry unit in Zalingei, capital of Central Darfur, on Thursday.

El Shafee Abdallah, Coordinator of Central Darfur camps, told Radio Dabanga that heavily armed RSF troops in two vehicles tried to break the sit-in on Thursday evening, which led to the shooting and wounding of two protesters, one of them seriously.

The Central Sudanese Doctors’ Committee confirmed in a statement on Friday that “young protester” Muhanad Khamis was hit by a RSF Land Cruiser causing him varying injuries in attempts to forcibly end the sit-in in Zalingei.

The committee added that a vehicle belonging to the security apparatus pursued and hit lawyer Feisal Abdallah and broke his left arm.

Rapid Support Forces

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are under the command of Lt Gen Mohamed Hamdan (aka Hemeti), deputy-head of the Transitional Military Council (TMC) and effective Vice-President of Sudan

Abdallah said that some army officers from the Zalingei military garrison visited the sit-in after the incident, while the militiamen left the scene.

He said that a large number of people joined the sit-in after the attack to support the protesters. The sit-in began on Wednesday, when members of the Sudanese Professionals Association in Central Darfur held a march to the army garrison and submitted a memorandum demanding the Transitional Military Council hand power to civilians in accordance with the Declaration of Freedom and Change.

The memorandum also raised several demands to the acting governor of Central Darfur including putting the hand on the headquarters of the National Congress Party and the arrest of its figures in the state with the dissolution of all the security organs of the former regime, but nothing happened, prompting them to launch the sit-in on Wednesday.