Sudan’s armed forces used excessive and lethal force against peaceful protesters gathered in Khartoum on May 11, 2021, to commemorate victims of a 2019 deadly crackdown, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today.
Sudan’s health ministry said two people were killed and thirty-seven injured.
According to HRW, Sudan’s repression of peaceful protests underscores the need for its international partners to scrutinize the authorities’ commitment to reforming the security forces and ensuring meaningful justice.
“Sudan’s army blocked, opened fire on, and beat people commemorating lives lost fighting for justice,” said Laetitia Bader, Horn of Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Once again in the new Sudan, security forces are resorting to abusive old tactics.
On May 11, an association of families of protesters killed during the country’s 2018-19 revolution, which ended Omar al-Bashir’s 30-year-rule, and other groups organized an iftar (breaking of the fast). The event commemorated the second anniversary of the government crackdown on protesters on June 3, 2019, and the following days in which security forces killed at least 120 people and injured hundreds around Khartoum.
The transitional government initiated an investigation into those events in September 2019, but victims’ families and other protest groups say that the investigation has been slow and question its independence.
Human Rights Watch said they interviewed nine witnesses by telephone, including journalists and activists, who took part in the commemorations and witnessed the military’s heavy-handed response.
“On May 10, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) issued a statement saying they would block all main roads leading to their headquarters on the day of the iftar. Between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. on May 11, protesters gathered outside SAF headquarters in central Khartoum, notably along Nile Street and near the University of Khartoum campus,” HRW said in a statement. “One protester said that as the crowd grew, they decided to march forward and break the lines of soldiers and cement blocks set up by the army to reach the location planned for the iftar.”
“The army had set up cement blocks and deployed a number of soldiers, including military police and a couple of armored vehicles,” a protester said. “After some shoving between protesters and soldiers, they (soldiers) moved away and let protesters hold their iftar.”
After the iftar ceremony, held near a famous vocational training center on Nile Street, speakers from various protest groups took to the center’s stage. Several people said the number of soldiers started to increase, forming “cordons” around the crowd, which later hindered their dispersal.
The witnesses saw some soldiers position themselves at a tunnel, which passed near the stage and above the tunnel on railway tracks that pass over it, allowing for only a narrow exit from the vocational training center to Nile street.
“I could see from where I was standing near the main stage that SAF soldiers were moving and forming what looked like a box,” said the father of a protester killed in 2019. “I saw army soldiers moving to split the crowd into two.”
A journalist said that when the last person was speaking, soldiers started to move closer to the crowd, almost encircling them: "I saw soldiers pushing protesters away from the tunnel area and toward the stage. The soldiers, many armed, also positioned themselves at the railway bridge above the tunnel."
Three witnesses said they saw high-ranking army officers, including brigadiers and colonels, identified by their insignia, alongside the soldiers who were deployed around the area.
About 8 p.m., the final speaker asked the audience to disperse. A large number of soldiers, including military police, made it hard for the protesters to leave through the only exit the soldiers had left available. An event organizer said that he and others approached a group of soldiers and asked them to create space for people to disperse. "They [protesters] can walk over and crush each other," a soldier replied. "We do not care. We just want you out of here."
Soldiers, apparently unprovoked and without warning, started to beat protesters. One witness said he saw soldiers spreading out along the exit toward Nile Street, chasing protesters, and saw some soldiers beating protesters with gun butts.
“The soldiers were very aggressive, they were just beating everyone and for no reason,” he said. “There was no provocation at all. I saw some female protesters beaten by the soldiers and falling to the ground.”