KHARTOUM, Sept 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — At least 74 protesters were wounded during anti-junta Marches of the Millions in Khartoum organised by the resistance committees on Tuesday while a day earlier, government forces assaulted young people in the city and forcibly shaved their heads.
In Khartoum, demonstrations started from Bashdar and Abu Hamama south of the centre, and headed toward the Republican Palace along the Blue Nile in central Khartoum.
The protesters chanted slogans calling for the overthrow of the October 2021 putschists and for a civilian government.
When they approached El Gasr Street, leading to the palace, police forces fired tear gas canisters extensively to prevent them from entering the street. This turned into a hit-and-run between the demonstrators and the police.
Many protesters were detained, sources said.
The Central Committee of Sudan Doctors (CCSD) reported that 74 people were injured during the protest marches, 70 in Khartoum and four in Omdurman. Injured who were treated by fields teams have not been counted.
A minor was wounded when he was run-over by “a vehicle belonging to the regular forces”, 18 others sustained injuries when the police fired tear gas canisters at them, one was hit by rubber bullets, and the others were injured “as a result of stone-throwing, beating, and the use of excessive tear gas”.
The CCSD reported that five people were wounded during street protests on Monday. One of them sustained “a fracture of the skull when he was hit by a tear gas canister. Two were hit by rubber bullets, and two others were injured during the stampede”.
During a UN Security Council meeting on Sudan, Volker Perthes, the UN Special Representative for Sudan and head of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) briefed the council members on the situation in the country. The members expressed their concern about the authorities’ use of excessive force in confronting the demonstrators, called for an immediate cessation of the violence and perpetrators of human rights abuses to be held accountable.
Joint forces of the Sudanese army, security police, and the paramilitary Central Reserve Police (popularly known as Abu Teira) on Monday launched a violent campaign against young people in Khartoum.They seized them from buses and other vehicles, beat them, shaved their hair, and robbed them of their belongings.
Emergency Lawyers said in a press statement the same day that “this systematic campaign primarily targeted young people”.
Emergency lawyer Ghada Abbas told Radio Dabanga’s Sudan Today that “the campaign aims to break the resolve of young people through these grave, humiliating and degrading violation of human dignity”.
She called on all the victims of human rights violations to report their case to the Emergency Lawyers so that it will be documented.
In the end of August, Radio Dabanga reported about a similar campaign in Khartoum North. Social media activists said that the practice is similar to what the now dissolved Public Order Police used to do, claiming to “maintain appearance in public places”. — NNN-AGENCIES
