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AFP
Khartoum
It was the crack of dawn when armed men in pick-up trucks stormed into a Khartoum protest camp, shooting and beating hundreds of Sudanese demonstrators on June 3.
“Everyone started running for their lives,” said protester Akram, who gave only his first name fearing reprisals by authorities.
“It was very brutal.”
Crowds of protesters camped outside the Khartoum army headquarters were violently dispersed that day by armed men in military fatigues, leaving dozens dead and hundreds wounded, according to doctors and witnesses.
They had been gathered at the complex since April, initially seeking the army’s help to oust longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir, and later to demand the generals hand power to a civilian administration.
Akram said some of the armed men wore police uniforms, while others were in military fatigues generally worn by the feared Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group. He said it was difficult to count how many they were, but the gunmen arrived in trucks and raided the sit-in from all sides.
“They first attacked us with batons and sticks,” Akram, dressed in the same blue shirt he wore the day of the crackdown, said at the home of a fellow protester in Khartoum.
“At first the protesters were able to push back,” he said, describing the early morning raid.
“But then a bigger force wearing the uniform of the Rapid Support Forces stormed in and started shooting protesters who were standing at the barricades.”
Khartoum
It was the crack of dawn when armed men in pick-up trucks stormed into a Khartoum protest camp, shooting and beating hundreds of Sudanese demonstrators on June 3.
“Everyone started running for their lives,” said protester Akram, who gave only his first name fearing reprisals by authorities.
“It was very brutal.”
Crowds of protesters camped outside the Khartoum army headquarters were violently dispersed that day by armed men in military fatigues, leaving dozens dead and hundreds wounded, according to doctors and witnesses.
They had been gathered at the complex since April, initially seeking the army’s help to oust longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir, and later to demand the generals hand power to a civilian administration.
Akram said some of the armed men wore police uniforms, while others were in military fatigues generally worn by the feared Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group. He said it was difficult to count how many they were, but the gunmen arrived in trucks and raided the sit-in from all sides.
“They first attacked us with batons and sticks,” Akram, dressed in the same blue shirt he wore the day of the crackdown, said at the home of a fellow protester in Khartoum.
“At first the protesters were able to push back,” he said, describing the early morning raid.
“But then a bigger force wearing the uniform of the Rapid Support Forces stormed in and started shooting protesters who were standing at the barricades.”
