Sudanese police to investigate vehicle-ramming attack on protesters
May 6, 2022 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese police announced on Friday the formation of a committee to investigate vehicle attacks and other human rights violations broadcast live on Thursday.
The security forces fired rubber and live bullets and tear gas to disperse the pro-democracy protesters. Also, they carried out deliberate vehicle-ramming attacks on the anti-coup protests.
Al-Hadath, a news TV channel funded by Saudi Arabia, filmed these attacks but also showed security agents in plain clothes walking with their pistols in hand and one of them targeting the crowd before changing his mind.
In response to these shocking images, the Sudanese police issued two statements saying they ordered an investigation of the isolated “individual actions” of its agents against the protesters.
“These individual actions are reckless” (…) and totally unacceptable,” reads the first statement before adding that they do not resemble the police and its legacy.
The independent medical group Central Committee of Sudan Doctors (CCSD) said a protester was killed when a security agent deliberately rammed his vehicle into a crowd of protesters in Khartoum.
More videos were released by the Sudanese activists about several vehicle-ramming assaults by police vehicles on the protesters.
One of these videos seen by the Sudan Tribune shows the murder of Mujtaba Abdel Salam by a police vehicle in the Shoroni area of Khartoum on Thursday.
Police used necessary force
In a second statement released on Friday, the police defended their use of force as a necessary measure.
“Some protesters have committed “unlawful and violent acts during the protests. However, the police used a reasonable and necessary amount of legal force to disperse them,” reads the second statement.
The statement went further to say that Abdel Salam died as “a result of a traffic accident during these demonstrations” according to the information they have.
Also, the police said that 37 police officers were wounded and treated at the Police Hospital while 28 protesters sustained minor injuries.
The statement alluded that they arrested some drugged protesters and a lawsuit was lodged against them under Article (15/A) of the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Law.
General Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan head of the Sovereign Council stated recently that he would take confidence-building measures including the end of violence against protesters.
With regard to the gunman who appeared in the video preparing to open fire on the protesters with his revolver, the second statement reiterated they would investigate his identity to get sure he is a member of the security forces.
(ST)