Sudan police fire tear gas to clear Khartoum barricades

Police in the Sudan capital of Khartoum fired tear gas and arrested a number of protesters “after limited clashes and hit-and-run operations” at the Mak Nimr Bridge and on Nile Street on Sunday, to clear barricades that gridlocked traffic in the city from many hours. The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) has called for an urgent investigation into the injury of 17 demonstrators in Khartoum after police used tear gas and live ammunition to disperse protests as hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets on Thursday in support of a peaceful democratic transition and to call for civilian rule.

Witnesses told Radio Dabanga that a number of protesters who held a sit-in at the Republican Palace, closed Mak Nimr Bridge, Nile Street, University Street, Baladiya Street and El Jumhuriya Street in central Khartoum. They chanted slogans against the transitional government before the police fired tear gas and removed the barricades.

The closure of the roads on Sunday morning caused complete paralysis in central Khartoum, and led to the suspension of work at many private and public institutions. In a statement, the governor of Khartoum, Ayman Nimir, said that “a group of employees of the dissolved National Congress Party (the party of deposed dictator Omar Al Bashir) closed the Mak Nimr Bridge and the Nile Street to disrupt traffic in central Khartoum. He said that the state government directed the police, in the presence of the Public Prosecution, to open roads and take decisive and necessary legal measures, to ensuring the flow of traffic in the centre of the capital.

17 injured

US-based African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) that monitors respect for human rights and law reform in Sudan, has issued an urgent call to investigate the injuring of 17 peaceful demonstrators in Khartoum on Thursday, after hundreds of thousands of people across Sudan took to the streets in the Marches of the Millions in support of a peaceful democratic transition and to call for civilian rule. Security forces used teargas and live ammunition to disperse protests.

The ACJPS say that “the transitional government should urgently set up an independent and impartial commission to ensure an immediate and effective investigation into the full scale of injuring, identify those responsible, and recommend ways to hold them accountable.”

The Centre asserts that “the violent response from the security forces towards the peaceful demonstrators raises concerns about the continued reliance on repressive tactics to disrupt peaceful assembly”, and calls on the government of Sudan “to respect the peoples’ rights to freedom of assembly, association and expression as guaranteed in international standards and UN treaties ratified by Sudan. and refrain from using excessive force to disperse protests.”

List of the 17 injured (source: ACJPS):

1. Abutalib Feisal (male), (20) (Right hand injury)
2. Abubakar Mirghani Ismail (male), (20) (Leg injury)
3. Ahmed Hamdan Ahmed (male), (35) (Head injury)
4. Ahmed Hamid Saeed (male), (31) (Right Hand injury)
5. El Jeily Ibrahim El Tayib (male), (30) (A gunshot wound on the left leg)
6. El Zein Abdelhadi (male), (70) (Tear gas suffocation)
7. Ibrahim Abdallah (male), (23) (Head injury)
8. Mahir Osman (male), (35) (Injury on both hands)
9. Mazin Ayman (male), (22) (A gushot wound on the abdomen)
10. Mohamed Abdelgadir (male), (21) (A gunshot wound on the right foot)
11. Mohamed El Haj Mohamed (male), (27) (Tear gas suffocation)
12. Mohamed El Zein (male), (18) (Head injury)
13. Mohamed Hasan Ibrahim (male), (23) (A gunshot wound on the right arm)
14. Shol Deng (male), (25) (Right Hand injury)
15. Wisam Mahdi (male), (20) (Tear gas suffocation)
16. Yasir El Kamil Saeed (male), (23) (Left hand injury)
17. Zohal Abdelrahman (female), (23) (sustained wounds in different parts of her body)