Another civilian killed by Sudanese forces near protest site
June 21, 2019 (KHARTOUM) – A young man was killed and others injured Saturday after clashes took place on one of the main streets in the Sudanese capital near the sit-in site where camp demonstrators who demand the handover of power to civil authority.
The Rapid Support Forces militiamen cordoned off the Nile Street clashed with what the military junta officials describe as saying they were a group of criminals and drug traffickers who transformed the Nile banks to an area for “unacceptable” practices.
He is the third victim to be killed in the area in less than a week.
An eyewitness confirmed the deployment of huge forces along the street and the prevention of pedestrians and cars from using the vital road after it was completely closed.
According to the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors (CCSD), the clashes resulted in 11 different injuries, some of them by shot. The group later reported that Abdel Basit Abdellah Issa a 20-year-old youth died of a bullet to the head.
The opposition forces warned that the attack on the area adjacent to the sit-in would be a prelude to storming the sit-in and to expel protesters by force.
The Sudanese Professional Association (SPA), which spearheads the ongoing protests in Sudan, said it had reason to believe that the military junta is planning and working to end the peaceful sit-in outside the army headquarters with excessive force and violence.
The SPA revealed, in a statement on Saturday, the introduction of anti-revolutionary elements to the sit-in this week and the presence of subversive elements in the vicinity of the sit-in in order to provoke chaos on the Nile Street and to claim the absence of peaceful revolution.
The group pointed that the military forces used to shoot live-bullets intensively in the Nile Street, without discipline or responsibility, which led to the killing and wounding of a number of civilians during the past few days.
“We will not accept the use of bullets and murder of unarmed civilians,” the SPA said before to call on the military junta to relinquish from “plans to fabricate chaos and insecurity in the country.”
Further, the group cautioned against any “ill-conceived and illegal” action.
In a separate statement, the opposition coalition of the Forces for Freedom and Change deplored the continued use of excessive force by the security and military forces and the shooting of defenceless civilians on the Nile Street.
The FFC, which includes the SPA, believe that the escalation of violence from the military council aims to dissuade them from demanding a quick handover of power to civilians.
The talks have been suspended since more than a week as the TMC refuse to give civilians the leadership of the Sovereign Council saying they have fears for the country’s security and political stability.
(ST)