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Sudanese Cities Witness Protests Over Deteriorating Living Conditions

Caption: Protests in Sudan (Reuters)
Caption: Protests in Sudan (Reuters)
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Sudanese Cities Witness Protests Over Deteriorating Living Conditions

Caption: Protests in Sudan (Reuters)
Caption: Protests in Sudan (Reuters)

Protests in several Sudanese cities over deteriorating living conditions have turned into riots that included torching some government buildings, damaging private properties, and looting stores.

Demonstrations and security unrest have escalated in line with announcing the formation of the new government.

The newly-appointed ministers are scheduled on Wednesday to take the constitutional oath before Sovereign Council chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, in the presence of the Chief Justice Nemat Abdullah.

In his first statement, the newly appointed Sudanese Finance Minister, Gibril Ibrahim, who is also leader of the Justice and Equality Movement, pledged to deal with the queues for fuel and bread and provide medicine at affordable prices.

In Nyala city, the capital of South Darfur, people took to the streets protesting the hike in the price of bread and its scarcity.

Demonstrations moved to the neighborhoods and the city’s central market.

The State Security Committee announced a state of emergency, imposed a curfew, and suspended schools.

Nyala Governor Moussa Mahdi told the Sudanese official news agency that police managed to disperse the protesters after they attempted to storm shops in the market.

Security forces seized weapons and ammunition in the possession of arrested protesters and recorded minor property losses.

Eyewitnesses told Asharq Al-Awsat that security forces used tear gas and live ammunition to disperse the large crowds.

Some groups infiltrated the protesters to loot stores and the public market’s warehouses, they said, adding that police forces thwarted their attempts and prevented acts of vandalism against public and private properties.

According to local sources, the city saw a massive deployment of police forces, some army units, and Rapid Support Forces, in anticipation of more demonstrations.

North Darfur’s government announced a state of emergency and imposed a curfew in the capital, al-Fashir, from 6 pm.

It also closed schools for three days and took strict measures to secure strategic areas, government institutions and markets.

In a statement on Tuesday, the government stressed that peaceful demonstrations in the capital were infiltrated by saboteurs and those with political agendas.

Saboteurs set on fire and looted a number of government institutions and commercial headquarters in the large market and several police cars.

Meanwhile, dozens of school students stormed the streets of Port Sudan, in the east, over the flour crisis, which resulted from the strike by bakery owners due to tariffs imposed on subsidized bread.

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Arab World

Israeli Military Changes Initial Account of Gaza Aid Worker Killings

Palestinians mourn medics, who came under Israeli fire while on a rescue mission, after their bodies were recovered, according to the Red Crescent, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip March 31, 2025. (Reuters)
Palestinians mourn medics, who came under Israeli fire while on a rescue mission, after their bodies were recovered, according to the Red Crescent, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip March 31, 2025. (Reuters)
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Israeli Military Changes Initial Account of Gaza Aid Worker Killings

Palestinians mourn medics, who came under Israeli fire while on a rescue mission, after their bodies were recovered, according to the Red Crescent, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip March 31, 2025. (Reuters)
Palestinians mourn medics, who came under Israeli fire while on a rescue mission, after their bodies were recovered, according to the Red Crescent, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip March 31, 2025. (Reuters)

The Israeli military has provided new details that changed its initial account of the killing of 15 emergency workers near the southern Gaza city of Rafah last month but said investigators were still examining the evidence.

The 15 paramedics and emergency responders were shot dead on March 23 and buried in a shallow grave where their bodies were found a week later by officials from the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent. Another man is still missing.

The military initially said soldiers had opened fire on vehicles that approached their position "suspiciously" in the dark without lights or markings. It said they killed nine fighters from Hamas and Islamic Jihad who were travelling in Palestinian Red Crescent vehicles.

But video recovered from the mobile phone of one of the dead men and published by the Palestinian Red Crescent showed emergency workers in their uniforms and clearly marked ambulances and fire trucks, with their lights on, being fired on by soldiers.

The only known survivor of the incident, Palestinian Red Crescent paramedic Munther Abed, also said he had seen soldiers opening fire on clearly marked emergency response vehicles.

An Israeli military official said late on Saturday the investigators were examining the video and conclusions were expected to be presented to army commanders on Sunday.

Israeli media briefed by the military reported that troops had identified at least six of the 15 dead as members of the groups. However, the official declined to provide any evidence or detail of how the identifications were made, saying he did not want to share classified information.

"According to our information, there were terrorists there but this investigation is not over," he told reporters at the briefing late on Saturday.

The UN and the Palestinian Red Cross have demanded an independent inquiry into the killing of the paramedics.

Red Crescent officials have said 17 paramedics and emergency workers from the Red Crescent, the Civil Emergency service and the UN had been dispatched to respond to reports of injuries from Israeli air strikes.

Apart from Abed, who was detained for several hours before being released, another worker is still missing.

OPENED FIRE

The military official said initial findings from the investigation showed troops had opened fire on a vehicle at around 4 a.m., killing two members of the Hamas internal security forces, and taking another prisoner, who the official said had admitted under interrogation to being in Hamas.

As time passed, several vehicles passed along the road until, at around 6 a.m., he said troops received word from aerial surveillance that a suspicious group of vehicles was approaching.

"They feel this is another incident like what happened at 4 a.m. and they opened fire," the official said.

He said aerial surveillance footage showed the troops were at some distance when they opened fire, and he denied reports that the troops handcuffed at least some of the paramedics and shot them at close range.

"It's not from close. They opened fire from afar," he said. "There's no mistreatment of the people there."

He said the soldiers had approached the group they had shot, identifying at least some of them as fighters. However, he did not explain what evidence had prompted the assessment.

"And in their eyes, they had an encounter with terrorists, that is a successful encounter with terrorists."

He said the troops had informed the UN of the incident on the same day and initially covered the bodies with camouflage netting until they could be recovered. UN officials did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

"There was no incident where the Israeli army tried to cover up. On the contrary, they called the UN immediately."

Later, when the UN did not immediately come to take the bodies, the soldiers covered them with sand to stop animals from getting at them, the official said.

He said the vehicles were pushed out of the way by a heavy engineering vehicle to clear the road but he could not explain why the vehicles were crushed by the engineering vehicle and then buried.