Sudan’s military rulers moved Monday to break up a weeks-long sit-in outside Khartoum’s army headquarters, leaving at least nine protesters dead, a doctors’ committee said as gunfire was heard echoing from the site.
Heavily armed security forces in pick-up trucks mounted with machine guns were deployed in large numbers all around the capital, while gunfire was heard from the protest site.
The United States and Britain called for an end to the crackdown on demonstrators, who want the generals behind the overthrow of veteran president Omar al-Bashir to hand over to civilian rule.
The death toll “from the massacre today has risen to nine martyrs,” the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors, which is close to the protesters, wrote.
It also reported a “large number of critical casualties” and called for “urgent support” from the International Committee of the Red Cross and other humanitarian organisations to help the wounded.
The military council has denied multiple reports of their forces violently dispersing the sit-in in front of army headquarters.
AFP
