Sudanese police killed about 20 people and injured 40 on Saturday when they opened fire on hundreds of demonstrators in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, a local political leader said.| "Your highness! The people are demonstating!" "Why are you telling me? Kill them." |
A witness to the unrest, Khalil Usman Khalil, told Aljazeera TV that the protest rally started Friday night. "Clashes took place between demonstrators and police, lasting for almost all Friday night. Work at Port Sudan was partially stopped and almost completely this morning after renewal of violence, so police resorted to disperse demonstrators," Khalil said on Saturday. Moussa said he was present in the morning when 300 to 400 members of the Beja ethnic group gathered to prepare for a march to demand that the Khartoum government start negotiations with the Beja on sharing power and the country's resources. "There was a special police unit that appeared and just opened fire at them before they even moved. They fired at their heads and bodies, not even in the air," he said. Three children were among those killed, he added. The source at the hospital said all of the wounds were from bullets. "About 17 were killed and around 20 injured," added the source, who declined to be named.
Three days ago members of eastern tribes, mostly the Beja, presented a list of demands to the Red Sea state governor, including wealth and power sharing. They warned they would take unspecified actions if the demands were not met within 72 hours. "This time was up today and they started a march towards the wali's (governor's) office," the hospital source said, adding the police stopped the march before it got very far. The source said seven soldiers were injured by stones, but only civilians suffered gunshot wounds.
| I hope we, or maybe the Brits, are lining something up to give Bashir the little push he seems to need. |
| First the south, then the west, now the east, ... |