Two people killed in anti-military protests in Sudan, doctors say

Photo Credit: Reuters

Security forces killed two people during protests in Sudan on Sunday against military rule, a doctors' committee said.

This brought to 56 the death toll in protests since a coup on Oct. 25, the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors said. The committee said that the first man was in his 20s and died of injuries to the head, while the second man died of gunshots to the chest. Both men died in the city of Omdurman.

Security forces have not commented on the deaths.

Sunday was the 12th round of major protests since the coup, with demonstrators demanding that the military play no role in government during a transition to free elections.

Security forces fired tear gas at demonstrators in Khartoum as protesters marched towards the presidential palace.

Internet and mobile services appeared to be disrupted in the city ahead of the protests, Reuters witnesses said. Some people managed to post images on social media showing protests in other cities, including Ad-Damazin, Port Sudan and Sennar.

On other occasions when communications have been disrupted, sources at telecoms companies have told Reuters that authorities demanded providers cut their services. Officials could not immediately be reached for comment about this on Sunday.

The doctors' committee, which is aligned with the protest movement, added that tens of people were injured and that the communications blackout had made it harder for ambulances to reach the injured.

Six people died and hundreds were injured in nationwide demonstrations on Thursday.

Al Hadath TV quoted an adviser to military leader Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan on Thursday as saying the military would not allow anyone to pull the country into chaos and that continued protests were a "physical, psychological, and mental drain on the country" and "would not achieve a political solution".

Sudan's Sovereign Council, which Burhan leads, on Friday denounced the violence that accompanied Thursday's protests, adding it had ordered authorities to take all legal and military measures to avoid a recurrence and saying "nobody will go unpunished".



PUKmedia / Reuters