Sudan: Death toll among protesters rises to 23
According to medical authorities, the death toll from protests against Sudan’s military takeover has grown to 23 since last month.
The Central Doctors Committee in Sudan, which opposes the military coup, announced (Monday) that the number of victims since the coup has grown to 23 in a statement posted on its official Facebook page.
According to the commission’s statistics, seven people were killed on Saturday during mass protests against the coup, which the security forces responded to with the most violent crackdown since Sudanese army chief Lieutenant-General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan announced his decisions on October 25 that ousted civilians from power.
The identities of the seven protestors slain were released, including three under the age of 18, including a 13-year-old girl who was “shot in the head outside her house,” according to the committee.
“Over two hundred injuries have been registered thus far,” the committee added, “of which more than one hundred were hit by live bullets, at least 11 of them are unstable.”
Sudan military takeover
On October 25, Al-Burhan declared the dissolution of the transitional government institutions, which coincided with the arrests of Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok, a number of his cabinet colleagues, and a number of lawmakers. The next day, Hamdok was returned to his home and has been under house arrest ever since.
The police, for their part, stated 39 of their members were “seriously wounded” after protestors stormed their facilities, denying that “live shots” were used against them.
Similarly, despite a heavy military presence and a lack of Internet access, opponents of military rule in Sudan were able to mobilize tens of thousands of demonstrators in the streets on Saturday, despite a heavy military presence and a lack of Internet access, forcing them to communicate and organize their movements through SMS or graffiti on the streets.
Al-Burhan formed a new transitional Sovereignty Council two days before the Saturday protests, which excluded four members of the Forces for Freedom and Change, a political bloc that emerged from the uprising against former President Omar al-Bashir and has called for a new “million” demonstration on Wednesday.
