Sa sob pierces the crowd massed in front of the Ajwada hospital in Khartoum. A young man in his twenties collapses, his head between his knees, unable to accept the death of his friend. He is one of nine “martyrs” killed by bullets, tear gas canisters, stab wounds and other acts of torture perpetrated by the Sudanese security forces on June 30.
This date was already historic for having marked the beginning of the dictatorship of Omar el-Bashir in 1989. Then, for having welcomed, thirty years later, monster demonstrations forcing the generals who succeeded the ousted dictator to resume dialogue with the civilians. This June 30, 2022 will remain engraved in the memory of the Sudanese as one of the most deadly days since the putsch of October 25. The balance sheet since kept by the Committee of Sudanese doctors now reaches 113 dead.
Appeals to the international community
Around 4 p.m. on Thursday, the tens of thousands of Sudanese gathered in the direction of the presidential palace – one of the many processions organized across the country – began to turn back. The avalanche of tear gas makes the air unbreathable, blurs vision and burns skin. Many seasoned demonstrators are however adorned with masks covering their entire face.
” I’m disapointed. I expected a real change today but it’s still the same. Some will die and we will go home. The international community must understand that the soldiers will not leave on their own,” predicts Amna Yasir. Telecommunications being cut since the morning, not unlike the 24 days without the Internet after the coup, this medical student is still unaware that some revolutionaries have already passed away.
Large straw hat and reflex camera in hand, Lamees Hassan directly urges the UN and the United States to “force the generals out of power by imposing individual sanctions on the head of the army Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and in Hemeti [surnom du numéro du Conseil de souveraineté, NDLR]. Because the latter need an agent to finance all this, to pay for the bullets of the police… Their accounts abroad must be frozen urgently. »
READ ALSOSudanese commemorate the fall of Omar al-Bashir
A fight for the future generation
A few meters away, sheltered under a neem tree, a team of nurses treated the wounded returning from the front. One of them bandages the bloody chest of a demonstrator hit by a tear gas canister. As the flow of motorbikes carrying the most severe cases to hospital intensifies.
“My son’s killer will not govern my country,” reads Sakina Mohieldin’s sign, who came to parade with her two daughters, who continue to believe in the scope of civil disobedience. “The more people there are in the street, the sooner the soldiers will understand that they have to leave,” hopes the eldest, Layla Hamza, 21. The arteries of the country’s big cities may be crowded, but the young woman with long braids, draped in a flag in the national colors, nevertheless recognizes a drop in mobilization, compared to the height of the December 2018 revolution.
“The Sudanese have tried to obtain their rights but each time they are killed. They are desperate. However, some, like me, cannot give up hope. Sudan is in ruins and it will take a long time to build a prosperous country. But we cannot abandon our nation. We want a better future for us, and especially for our children and grandchildren,” explains Layla Hamza.
READ ALSOSudan: the resistance committees do not give up
Hundreds of arrests and a possible rape case
The body damaged by eight months of weekly clashes, a fringe of the youth therefore retains an intact determination. And castigates, therefore, the reversals of the political parties of the coalition of the Forces for freedom and change. “They officially supported the three ‘no’s: no negotiations, no partnership, no compromise with the army. But they betrayed us by going to talk to the soldiers”, denounces Reem (1).
This member of a resistance committee, pro-democracy antennas spearheading the pro-democracy movement, refers to the discussions started on June 11 under the aegis of Saudi Arabia and the United States. A sort of last-ditch solution while the dialogue overseen by the UN, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development and the African Union remains frozen, due to lack of participation from the civilian branch.
This June 30, witnesses evoke a new case of rape. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations has already counted thirteen allegations of rape and gang rape of women and girls during previous demonstrations. Haitham Abusham, a representative of the Association of Emergency Lawyers, also lists more than 300 arbitrary arrests, including fifty in the days preceding this “million march”. “Once arrested, these people are subjected to inhuman treatment, warns the magistrate, from a police station in the north of the capital. All were tortured, the majority of them are injured. »
(1) The first name has been changed for security reasons.