More than 100 killed in Sudan as military cracks down on protesters, derails transition

Ann Strimov Durbin
June 5, 2019

Hopes for a smooth transition to civilian rule in Sudan were dashed at dawn on June 3, when Sudan’s armed forces opened fire on pro-democracy protesters, bystanders, and medical workers, killing more than 100 people. In response, Sudanese opposition groups halted all negotiations with the Transitional Military Council (TMC), which has been in power since the ouster of Sudan’s former president Omar al-Bashir. The TMC responded by scrapping all agreements with the opposition and called for premature elections. Despite subsequent backpedaling by the TMC, the people’s revolution has remained resolute in pushing for the unequivocal toppling of the TMC and immediate transition to civilian rule.

Jewish World Watch condemns this unjustified and unlawful unleashing of violence against peaceful civilian protesters in Khartoum, so painfully reminiscent of Sudan’s bloody past. This senseless slaughter has confirmed everyone’s worst fears — that the TMC is too closely aligned with Bashir and will resort to the same illegal, rights-effacing tactics to cling to power. The international community cannot stand idly by as the vestiges of Bashir’s corrupt regime wreak havoc on the civilian population and destroy this critical opportunity for real institutional change. We call on the U.S. government to take robust action, by demanding an investigation into and accountability for the killings and by imposing punitive sanctions on those responsible.

What happened?

Sudan’s security forces stormed a major protest camp in Khartoum in the early morning hours of June 3, killing over 100 people and wounding hundreds, in a day of violence that plunged Sudan’s once-hopeful revolution into chaos and uncertainty. As many of the protesters camped out at the vigil still slept, armed actors opened fire and shot teargas at the site of the sit-in at the military headquarters, dispersing protesters and burning many of their tents, according to Human Rights Watch. While the casualty figure was estimated to be around 35 on the day after the attacks, the number has risen to over 100. In a baseless attempt to destroy evidence of their wrongdoing, the assailants threw dozens of dead protesters’ bodies into the Nile River–a grim reminder of the utter disregard for human life that has shaped so many of Sudan’s atrocities.

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Since April, the sit-in location in Khartoum has been the epicenter of a country-wide, organized people’s revolution aimed at catalyzing a transition to civilian democratic rule in this war — and corruption-beleaguered nation. Witnesses reported that the perpetrators of the June 3 massacre were members of the infamous Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — a paramilitary force heavily armed by fallen-President Omar al-Bashir and led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, who is now deputy head of the TMC. For years, the nefarious RSF has committed mass atrocities in Darfur, as well as in the South Kordofan and the Blue Nile regions of Sudan. The RSF is largely comprised of former members of the Janjaweed militia, implicated in countless atrocities — including genocide — committed during the intractable conflict in Darfur since 2003, including the killing of thousands of civilians, forced displacement of hundreds of thousands, systematic pillaging and burning of villages and mass rape. Many of the tactics implemented in Darfur have resurfaced in this latest onslaught, including rape. “The RSF, the special military force which killed, raped, and tortured thousands in Darfur, brings its murderous rampage to the capital,” Amnesty International observed.

Doctors said the RSF entered hospitals, firing weapons, beating medical staff, and injuring protesters. Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that “the forces beat up medical staff and volunteers at clinics at the sit-in and in other hospitals, looted and destroyed property and threatened doctors and medical workers with reprisals if they provided care to the wounded. They also prevented ambulances from reaching the wounded and chased protesters into the compound of Mo-alim hospital and beat them.”

Live images broadcast on Arab television showed protestors’ tents ablaze, as other demonstrators ran from the scene. In footage on social media, bloodied protesters could be seen on the ground as vehicles manned by armed men in uniform drove at full speed through the streets. Several video clips showed groups of RSF fighters beating and shooting at civilians.

In response to the unmitigated and egregious violence, the Sudanese Professionals’ Association (SPA) — the vanguard of the people’s revolution since last December — cut off all contact with the TMC, calling for continued civil disobedience to overthrow the Council and force and immediate transition to civilian rule. “We can’t let people die for nothing,” Mohammed Azharii, a doctor and protester, told the New York Times. “That’s why we are going back tomorrow. This revolution is not over.”

On early Tuesday morning, after nearly 24 hours of violence that essentially upended the transitional process, the head of the TMC, Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burham, announced that elections would be held within nine months, organized under regional and international supervision. “Gaining legitimacy and a mandate does not come but through the ballot box,” Burhan said. He also announced that a government would immediately be formed to run the country until elections are held.

It appears that the TMC decided to put an end to the pro-reform protests after months of negotiations between civilian leaders and the TMC reached an impasse over how to share power between the military and civilian leadership during the transition to democracy. TMC spokesman Lieutenant General Shams El Din Kabbashi denied that the TMC was trying to clear out the sit-in, instead claiming that security forces were pursuing “unruly elements” who had infiltrated the camps and caused chaos.

The Aftermath

The international community has been quick to denounce the events in Sudan, with some very notable exceptions. Moussa Faki, head of the African Union Commission, urged “an immediate and transparent investigation in order to hold all those responsible accountable.” On Thursday, June 6, the African bloc took bolder and more significant action, suspending Sudan from the African Union until there was civilian rule.

The US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Tibory Nagy, called the crackdown a “brutal and coordinated attack, led by the Rapid Support Forces militia, that mirrors some of the worst offenses of the Bashir regime.” U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton called the Khartoum violence “abhorrent.”

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the excessive use of violence, including the opening of fire inside medical facilities, and called for an independent investigation. Guterres reminded the TMC of its responsibility to protect the citizens of Sudan and urged all parties to act with the utmost restraint. He also called for “unimpeded access to deliver essential care” at the sit-in site.

UN High Commission for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet stressed that “those exercising their rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression must be protected, not targeted or detained,” calling it “a fundamental tenet of international human rights law.” She, too, called for an immediate independent investigation into this “real setback” in the people’s revolution.

The UN Security Council met behind closed doors on Tuesday to discuss Sudan, after Britain and Germany requested the talks. However, the Security Council was unable to agree on a common position, after China, backed by Russia, blocked a bid to condemn the killing of civilians and issue an urgent call from world powers for an immediate halt to the violence. After the Security Council failure, eight European countries–Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, and Sweden–issued their own joint statement condemning the attacks and calling for an immediate transfer of power to a civilian-led government, as demanded by the people of Sudan.

African and Western governments have strongly aligned with the protesters since the vigil in front of military headquarters in Khartoum began on April 6. But, Arab governments, led by Saudi Arabia, have backed the military rulers, filling the power vacuum left behind after Bashir’s ouster. According to the New York Times, “the Western calls for nonviolence were likely outweighed … by the tacit support that wealthy Gulf countries and other Arab allies have given to Sudan’s generals since the protests toppled Mr. al-Bashir. The rulers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt view the popular revolution in Sudan as a dangerous example to their own countries, where the Arab Spring revolt of 2011 was either quashed or never allowed to take root.”

In response to mounting international outrage, the TMC pulled back its avowal to cancel all agreements with the civilian negotiating body, the Freedom and Change Alliance, saying the Council was ready to resume talks with “no restrictions.” “We in the military council extend our hand for negotiations without shackles except in the interests of the homeland,” Burhan said on state television. But the alliance of protesters and opposition groups rejected the offer, saying the military could no longer be trusted.

“We will continue in our protest, resistance, strike and total civil disobedience,” said Mohammed Yousef al-Mustafa, spokesman for the SPA, a key player in the alliance. Around the country, protesters have taken to the streets, outraged by the violent, dehumanizing attacks in Khartoum and the carnage.

What’s Next?

Violence has continued since news of the crackdown first broke and is spreading to other parts of the country. The sit-in site has become a wasteland. Heavily armed RSF units continue to sweep the streets, as civilians create makeshift barricades to try to protect their neighborhoods from the paramilitaries and thieves. The Darfur Women Action Group (DWAG) reports that protesters in El Gadaref were wounded when police used live ammunition and tear gas to force them to disperse. In El Nahud of West Kordofan, one protester was shot dead, while in Ed Damiz of Blue Nile State, RSF forces arrested protesters, seizing and burning their tents. Violence such as this, and likely far worse, will only increase as more and more Sudanese take to the streets, heeding the call to escalate the revolution.

Khartoum is just scary, a ghost city, no one walks on the streets. We can’t sleep at night we are as if in prison. Pray for us, the Janjaweed took the city and threw over 40 bodies into the Nile, they raped many women, I heard stories of two, and no means of communications between people here. I can’t describe what’s going on.

JWW’s field representative has been in Khartoum witnessing this all unfold. She reports, “Khartoum is just scary, a ghost city, no one walks on the streets. We can’t sleep at night we are as if in prison. Pray for us, the Janjaweed took the city and threw over 40 bodies into the Nile, they raped many women, I heard stories of two, and no means of communications between people here. I can’t describe what’s going on.”

This week’s attacks are much too reminiscent of those the RSF perpetrated in Darfur’s war zones to be treated lightly. Jewish World Watch believes the past several days of bloodshed in Sudan patently demonstrate that the transitional military authority has utterly failed to turn the page on Sudan’s appalling human rights record. We call on the international community to take robust and unified action to show that this backsliding into atrocities and a reign of terror will not be tolerated. The potential of deterioration into a full-blown war, which could significantly destabilize the region, should not be underestimated. According to the Soufan Group, a security and intelligence think-tank, “there are clear parallels to some of the Arab Spring protests that eventually progressed to full-blown insurgencies, including Syria.”

“This is a critical point in our revolution. The military council has chosen escalation and confrontation … Now the situation is us or them; there is no other way,” said Mohammed Youef al-Mustafa, spokesperson for the SPA. The international community must rally to support this resolute call for change. Statements and denunciations are not enough. Now is the time for rigorous preventive action. The international community should emulate the African Union’s brave, decisive move to exclude Sudan and follow its lead with equally robust action.

For its part, the TMC must immediately and unconditionally end its use of disproportionate and deadly force against peaceful protesters and must uphold the universal right to freedom of assembly, association and expression.

The United States and other countries that have strong bilateral ties with Sudan should demand the immediate demobilization of the RSF, call for an impartial, independent investigation into the atrocities and hold those responsible for the unlawful killings to account. Targeted sanctions should be imposed on members of the TMC who have command and control over the RSF, including Hemedti. Washington must demand that its regional allies —Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates — exert pressure on the Sudanese military to demilitarize and capitulate.

The current instability in Khartoum could reverberate through other regions of Sudan, where protracted armed conflicts remain unresolved — including Darfur, South Kordofan, and the Blue Nile. While the UN Security Council has approved a withdrawal of UNAMID – the African Union-United Nations hybrid operation in Darfur — further whittling down the force at this juncture could be dangerous for the civilian populations in the region. Thus, the UN Security Council should pause any further drawdown until civilian protection in Sudan is guaranteed and those responsible for this week’s atrocities are held to account.