Dr Sid Ganaat, medical doctor at the Omdurman Hospital that the number of protesters transferred to the hospital on Wednesday during the 7am-7pm shift, was tallied at 74, 38 of them injured and 36 dead.
In an interview with Radio Dabanga on Thursday, Dr Ganaat confirmed that the 36 protesters in Omdurman died of bullet shots, in the head, chest, abdomen and legs. Since the beginning of the uprising, on Monday, 84 cases of injured were brought in at the first aid department of the hospital. Dr Ganaat himself performed operations on 38 of the injured.
The medical doctor added that no one can assert the exact number of deaths in Khartoum, referring to cases of deaths that were not registered as the bodies were not transported to the hospitals in the capital. Yet, the number of deaths registered by the hospitals in Greater Khartoum (Khartoum, Khartoum Bahri, and Omdurman) until today reached 111. The number of injured counted during three days of protests reached 289 by Wednesday evening.
Dr Ganaat explained the figures he mentioned on the basis of the numbers of deaths reported by the following hospitals: Alban El Jadid hospital: 18, Sherg El Nil hospital: 5, Bahri hospital: 11, Ali Abdelfatah hospital, Durushaab North: 7, El Turki hospital in Kalakla: 4. The number of injured at the Omdurman hospital reached 184, and at Bahri hospital 153.
The Sudanese Doctors Syndicate has condemned the arrest of Dr Mohamed Abdelrazig, head of its Khartoum branch and demanded his immediate release.
The Syndicate also issued a statement, in which it reiterated its rejection of the price increase of fuel and basic commodities, adding that “The crisis in Sudan is not an economic or financial crisis, as the government terms it, but it is a crisis of the policies and methodology of privatisation and economic liberalism, dominated by parasitic capitalistic gangs, who widely opened the door for the economic and political hegemony of the authoritarian power.”
The statement furthermore refers to the anti-democratic measures the regime uses in order to succeed: the use of violence and armed forces in confronting the demands and aspirations of the people. The Sudanese Doctors Syndicate, supporting the demonstrations, appealed to the armed forces to let the people express their feelings freely.
News photo: Demonstrators display placards at a barricade in Khartoum on Wednesday (hurriyatsudan.com)