Sudanese security forces on Friday fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators who marched after noon prayers in Khartoum as protests against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s 30-year-old rule widened.
Protests against the government first flared last month and have posed the most serious challenge yet to al-Bashir, a former army general who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in the Darfur region.
At least 22 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in the protests, which were sparked by anger over rising food prices and cash shortages, but quickly turned against al-Bashir’s government. The crackdown drew a rare rebuke from the state-funded Sudanese National Commission for Human Rights.
Photo: AFP
Friday’s protests appeared to have drawn more people than before and were more widespread. In previous weeks the protests began only after sundown.
Reuters witnesses said that security forces used tear gas against dozens of demonstrators in al-Halfaya Bahri, in the south of Khartoum, and against a separate demonstration by dozens of people emerging from Sayed Abdel Rahman Mosque in Omdurman, which sits on the other side of the Nile River from the capital.
Security forces chased the demonstrators into side streets, but there were no immediate reports of casualties, the witnesses said.
In Omdurman, army forces on minitrucks with automatic guns were seen guarding a gas station.
In a separate incident, witnesses said that hundreds of demonstrators emerged from a mosque known to be affiliated with al-Bashir’s government in the Jabra district of southern Khartoum chanting: “The people want the fall of the regime.”
Footage posted on social media appeared to show a stream of demonstrators passing by the mosque while chanting derogatory slogans against al-Bashir’s Islamist ideology-based administration. The authenticity of the recording could not immediately be verified.
North of Khartoum, demonstrators blocked the main road linking the capital to the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, witnesses said, without giving any further details.
Three demonstrators were killed during protests on Thursday and Amnesty International accused security forces of chasing injured victims into Omdurman Hospital.
Authorities said that they had set up a commission to investigate the incident.
In a strongly worded statement, the human rights commission slammed the attack on Omdurman Hospital and called for a swift investigation into the deaths of citizens.
“We look with great regret at the use of live ammunition against unarmed civilians,” it said. “We also express deep concern over the use of tear gas within the confines of the Omdurman hospital, which has led to harming the patients, those accompanying them and of health practitioners.”
Sudan’s economy was crippled when the south seceded in 2011, taking away much of its oil resources. The crisis has deepened since last year, when the country saw some brief protests over bread shortages.
The US in October 2017 lifted 20-year-old trade sanctions on Sudan, but many investors continue to shun a country still listed by Washington as a state sponsor of terrorism.
Al-Bashir came to power in a 1989 coup and has won successive elections that his critics said were neither fair nor free.
Pins hidden in her shoes, head forced down a toilet, kicked in the stomach: South Korean hairdresser Pyo Ye-rim suffered a litany of abuse from school bullies, but now she is speaking out. The 26-year-old is part of a phenomenon sweeping South Korea known as “Hakpok #MeToo,” where people who were bullied publicly name and shame the perpetrators of school violence — “hakpok” in Korean — decades after the alleged crimes. Made famous globally by Netflix’s gory revenge series The Glory, the movement has ensnared everyone from K-pop stars to baseball players and accusations — often anonymous — can be career-ending, with
One of Australia’s two active volcanoes on an island near Antarctica — known as Big Ben — has been spotted by satellite spewing lava. The lava flow on the uninhabited Heard Island, about 4,100km southwest of Perth and 1,500km north of Antarctica, is part of an ongoing eruption that was first noted more than a decade ago. The image was caught by the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite on Thursday, and is a composite of an optical picture and an infrared image. The lava is seen flowing down the side of Big Ben from near the summit, known as Mawson Peak.
TIME TO TALK: Among China’s grievances were economic and trade issues related to Taiwan, but both countries emphasized the need to maintain communication US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (戴琪) on Friday raised complaints about China’s state-led economic policies during a meeting with Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao (王文濤), who objected to US tariffs and trade policies, as well as issues related to Taiwan, their offices said. However, statements from the US Trade Representative’s (USTR) office and the Chinese Ministry of Commerce emphasized the need for Washington and Beijing to maintain communication on trade. “Ambassador Tai highlighted the need to address the critical imbalances caused by China’s state-led, non-market approach to the economy and trade policy,” the USTR said in a statement released after the
READY FOR ACTION: Military, police, firefighters and volunteers were standing by for search-and-rescue operations, with an official saying they ‘cannot afford not to prepare’ Philippine officials yesterday began evacuating thousands of people, shut down schools and offices and imposed a no-sail ban as Typhoon Mawar approached the country’s northern provinces a week after battering the US territory of Guam. The typhoon was packing maximum sustained winds of 155kpm and gusts of up to 190kph, but was forecast to spare the mountainous region a direct hit. Current projections show the typhoon veering northeast toward Taiwan or southern Japan. Although it is expected to slow down considerably, authorities warned of dangerous tidal surges, flash floods and landslides as it blows past the northernmost province of Batanes from today
RSS