Khartoum Tightens Security ahead of June 30 Protests

Demonstrators wave their national flag as they attend a protest demanding President Omar Al-Bashir to step down, outside Defense Ministry in Khartoum, Sudan April 10, 2019. (Reuters)
Demonstrators wave their national flag as they attend a protest demanding President Omar Al-Bashir to step down, outside Defense Ministry in Khartoum, Sudan April 10, 2019. (Reuters)
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Khartoum Tightens Security ahead of June 30 Protests

Demonstrators wave their national flag as they attend a protest demanding President Omar Al-Bashir to step down, outside Defense Ministry in Khartoum, Sudan April 10, 2019. (Reuters)
Demonstrators wave their national flag as they attend a protest demanding President Omar Al-Bashir to step down, outside Defense Ministry in Khartoum, Sudan April 10, 2019. (Reuters)

Sudanese authorities have imposed strict security measures in preparation for protests planned by followers of the former regime and Islamists to commemorate the 1989 coup as the revolutionary forces are also planning a rally on the same day.

The Khartoum State Security Committee, chaired by the state’s designated governor, Youssef Adam al-Dai, announced the development of a tight security plan, and tightened coordination between all security and regular agencies to deal decisively with any violence.

For June 29 and 30, bridges and highways will be closed across the country’s provinces without exception.

“We have had information about the plans of the saboteurs and the intruders, who are planning to drag the celebrations into chaos,” al-Dai said in a statement.

Al-Dai said that the State Security Committee will not allow the eruption of violence, calling on everyone to cooperate with the competent authorities to ensure the success of the security plan.

Emergency security measures also include the closure of markets, commercial and service shops, to protect them from saboteurs, according to al-Dai’s statement.

Meanwhile, authorities announced the tightening of the health ban designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus and accordingly issued a decision to freeze the issuance of new permits until further notice.

Al-Dai said that authorities will freeze the issuance of new passes until further notice, while they have begun issuing permits for doctors, merchants and journalists to enable them to roam freely in light of the health restriction imposed to prevent the spread of the pandemic.

He stressed that the government intends to strictly implement the health ban and fully comply with the health requirements for coronavirus prevention.

Al-Dai’s statement appealed to protesters and citizens to cooperate with security services in maintaining the peacefulness of the protests, not to encroach on government buildings and citizens’ properties and to stay away from military sites and areas.



Erdogan Warns No Place for 'Terrorist' Groups in Syria

This handout photograph taken and released by Turkish Presidency Press Office on January 7, 2025, shows Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) shaking hands with Prime minister of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan Region Masrour Barzani (L) prior to their meeting at the Presidential Complex in Ankara. (Photo by Turkish Presidency Press Office / AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released by Turkish Presidency Press Office on January 7, 2025, shows Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) shaking hands with Prime minister of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan Region Masrour Barzani (L) prior to their meeting at the Presidential Complex in Ankara. (Photo by Turkish Presidency Press Office / AFP)
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Erdogan Warns No Place for 'Terrorist' Groups in Syria

This handout photograph taken and released by Turkish Presidency Press Office on January 7, 2025, shows Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) shaking hands with Prime minister of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan Region Masrour Barzani (L) prior to their meeting at the Presidential Complex in Ankara. (Photo by Turkish Presidency Press Office / AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released by Turkish Presidency Press Office on January 7, 2025, shows Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) shaking hands with Prime minister of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan Region Masrour Barzani (L) prior to their meeting at the Presidential Complex in Ankara. (Photo by Turkish Presidency Press Office / AFP)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said there was no place for "terrorist organizations" in Syria under its new leaders, in a warning regarding Kurdish forces there.

The fall of Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad last month raised the prospect of Türkiye intervening in the country against Kurdish forces accused by Ankara of links to armed separatists.

Erdogan's comment came during a meeting in Ankara with the prime minister of Iraq's Kurdish region, Masrour Barzani, the Turkish leader's office said in a statement.

Erdogan told Barzani that Türkiye was working to prevent the ousting of Assad in neighboring Syria from causing new instability in the region.

There is no place for "terrorist organizations or affiliated elements in the future of the new Syria," Erdogan said.

Ankara accuses one leading Kurdish force in Syria, the People's Protection Units (YPG), of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Türkiye.

The PKK has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state and is banned as a terrorist organization by Ankara and its Western allies.

The Turkish military regularly launches strikes against Kurdish fighters in Syria and neighboring Iraq, accusing them of PKK links.

On Monday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said: "The elimination of the PKK/YPG is only a matter of time."

He cited a call by Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group has long had ties with Türkiye, for the Kurdish-led forces to be integrated into Syria's national army.

The United States has backed the YPG in its fight against ISIS, which has been largely crushed in its former Syrian stronghold.

But Fidan warned that Western countries should not use the threat of IS as "a pretext to strengthen the PKK".