U.S. seeks probe of protest killings

KHARTOUM, Sudan — The top U.S. diplomat to Africa said there must be an “independent and credible” investigation into the Sudanese military’s violent dispersal of a protest camp in the capital earlier this month, as the ruling military council failed to announce the findings of its own investigation on Saturday as promised.

Sudan’s security forces violently swept away a camp in Khartoum on June 3 where demonstrators had been holding a sit-in. More than 100 people have been killed and hundreds wounded since then, according to protest organizers. Authorities say only 61 have died, including three security forces.

The violent breakup marked a turn in the standoff between the protesters and the military, which removed autocratic President Omar al-Bashir from power in April after a monthslong popular uprising against his 30-year rule.

Tibor Nagy, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Africa, said the deadly breakup of the sit-in outside the military’s headquarters “constituted a 180 degree turn in the way events were going.” He said events were moving forward favorably until then.

Sudan’s chief prosecutor on Saturday rejected the idea of any outside probe, saying the military was doing its own investigation. However, Sudan’s military council failed to release any findings of its investigation Saturday, saying only that some troops were implicated in the violent dispersal against the council’s will. It said those troops would be held accountable in a public trial.

Hussein Mallah and Samy Magdy are Associated Press writers.