Soldier killed in demonstrations
SUDANESE security forces attempted to break up an anti-government sit-in outside the military headquarters in the capital yesterday, setting off clashes in which a soldier was killed while trying to protect protesters, activists said.
Soldiers intervened to protect demonstrators after security forces tried to break up a protest by thousands of anti-government demonstrators camping outside the Defence Ministry in central Khartoum, witnesses and activists said.
They said riot police and secret service personnel charged the demonstrators with pick-up trucks while firing tear gas, trying to disperse a crowd estimated at around 3000 men and women.
But witnesses and activists said soldiers guarding the compound had come out to protect the demonstrators, firing warning shots in the air.
The security forces retreated without firing back and soldiers deployed around the area while demonstrators chanted: “The army is protecting us” and “One people, one army”, witnesses said.
Information Minister Hassan Ismail contradicted the reports, saying: “The crowd in front of the (military) general command has been cleared completely, in a way that resulted in no casualties among all parties…
“The security apparatus are coherent together and working with positive energy and in harmony,” he added.
Previous attempts by security forces have failed to disperse the protesters, who have vowed to stay until Bashir steps down.
Thousands of people rallied in front of the compound at the weekend in one of the biggest demonstrations since protests erupted in December calling for President Omar al-Bashir to step down.
EPA
Security forces have used tear gas, rubber bullets and live fire to try to disperse the protesters, according to the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), which is spearheading the demonstrations.
The Sudan Doctors Committee, an affiliate of the SPA, said the soldier was wounded while trying to protect the protesters and later died of his wounds. The medical group said another man died elsewhere in Khartoum after being beaten and tortured by security forces.
Footage posted online by activists showed soldiers in uniform moving peacefully among the protesters, raising the possibility that some troops were intervening to halt the violence.
Another clip showed a truck carrying a group of soldiers, including one who was wounded.
Protesters chanted: “If he lived, he is a hero, if he died, he is a martyr.”
During the 2011 uprising in neighbouring Egypt, the army stepped in to prevent clashes between protesters and police, and ultimately forced president Hosni Mubarak from power.
It was unclear whether such a scenario was under way in Sudan, where media access to the demonstrations has been heavily restricted.
The protests were initially sparked by price hikes and shortages, but quickly escalated into calls for the resignation of al-Bashir, who seized power in 1989 in an Islamist-backed military coup.
Al-Bashir has refused calls to step down, and has also declared a state of emergency and presided over a violent crackdown in which dozens of people have been killed.
The protests gained momentum last week after Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in power for 20 years, resigned in response to weeks of similar protests.