Sudan set up committee to probe missing protesters
September 23, 2019 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s Attorney General Abdallah Ahmed Abdallah on Monday issued a decision to set up a committee to investigate the post-3-June disappearance of protesters who were at the pro-democracy sit-in when the security forces stormed the area.
The attack on the main protest site outside the army headquarters took place when a joint force wearing the military fatigue of the Rapid Support Forces and the police opened fire on the peaceful protesters in the early morning of 3 June 2019.
Besides the over hundred dead, many are missing as their whereabouts is unknown and their bodies were not found among the victims.
The Committee will be headed by the director of public prosecutions and will include two prosecutors along with representatives of the Bar Association, the police, the Human Rights Department of the Ministry of Justice, and the Unit to combat violence against women.
According to the official news agency SUNA, the committee shall probe all the allegations concerning the mysterious disappearance of missing persons from the sit-in during or after the brutal raid.
The investigation body has to submit a report about its findings within two months besides making regular progress reports on the implementation of its mission.
In a recent report released on 14 September, a civil society group called ‘Missing’ put the number of missing protesters at 21 people.
Nine people were missing during the attack on the sit-in on 3 June 2019, eight before and after the assault, in addition to four others who were missing during their participation in the protests.
Last week, Mohamed al-Faki a member of the Sovereign Council, discussed with the head of the General Intelligence Service (GIS) Abu Bakr Mustafa (aka Damblab) discussed the issue of missing persons and decided to form a special committee to search the missing people.
(ST)