Sudanese Army Hands Probe Results into Protest Anniversary Killings to Prosecutor

Two protesters were killed after they gathered outside army headquarters in Khartoum on Tuesday evening. (AFP)
Two protesters were killed after they gathered outside army headquarters in Khartoum on Tuesday evening. (AFP)
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Sudanese Army Hands Probe Results into Protest Anniversary Killings to Prosecutor

Two protesters were killed after they gathered outside army headquarters in Khartoum on Tuesday evening. (AFP)
Two protesters were killed after they gathered outside army headquarters in Khartoum on Tuesday evening. (AFP)

Sudan’s commander-in-chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan referred to the prosecutors seven accused and 92 suspects involved in last week’s unrest near the Army General Command in Khartoum.

On Tuesday, security forces killed two people and injured dozens in an attack on a peaceful sit-in commemorating the second anniversary of the crackdown on the Ramadan 2019 protest, which left hundreds of people dead and injured.

The army said Saturday it had handed prosecutors the results of a probe into the 2019 killings after hundreds rallied this week calling for justice.

Burhan handed the results to prosecutor general Tagelsir al-Hebr, the military said in a statement.

The results included a list of army personnel suspected to be involved in the unrest, as well as an order “to lift their immunity” to initiate legal proceedings and reach final rulings, it added.

Earlier, a member of the Transitional Sovereignty Council Lieutenant General Shams El-Din Kabbashi confirmed that a number of officers and soldiers were arrested and are under investigation on charges of killing protesters in front of the army headquarters last Tuesday.

Kabbashi said the armed forces formed a committee to investigate who caused the events.

Sudanese Minister of Cabinet Affairs Khaled Omar Youssef said on his Facebook page that these are the first steps towards achieving justice for the two martyrs shot dead last week.

Youssef indicated that the immunity of the convicts was waived, and they were transferred to the public prosecutor for investigation, ahead of trial.

He stressed that the government is determined to achieve justice, in fulfillment of the slogans of the Sudanese revolution.



Pro-Türkiye Syria Groups Reduce Presence in Kurdish Area, Says Official

US-backed Kurdish fighters stand on their vehicles, as they withdraw from two neighborhoods in Syria's northern city of Aleppo as part of a deal with the Syrian central government, in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP)
US-backed Kurdish fighters stand on their vehicles, as they withdraw from two neighborhoods in Syria's northern city of Aleppo as part of a deal with the Syrian central government, in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP)
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Pro-Türkiye Syria Groups Reduce Presence in Kurdish Area, Says Official

US-backed Kurdish fighters stand on their vehicles, as they withdraw from two neighborhoods in Syria's northern city of Aleppo as part of a deal with the Syrian central government, in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP)
US-backed Kurdish fighters stand on their vehicles, as they withdraw from two neighborhoods in Syria's northern city of Aleppo as part of a deal with the Syrian central government, in Aleppo, Syria, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP)

Pro-Türkiye Syrian groups have scaled down their military presence in an historically Kurdish-majority area of the country's north which they have controlled since 2018, a Syrian defense ministry official said on Tuesday.

The move follows an agreement signed last month between Syria's new authorities and Kurdish officials that provides for the return of displaced Kurds, including tens of thousands who fled the Afrin region in 2018.

The pro-Ankara groups have "reduced their military presence and checkpoints" in Afrin, in Aleppo province, the official told AFP, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Their presence has been "maintained in the region for now", said the official, adding that authorities wanted to station them in army posts but these had been a regular target of Israeli strikes.

After opposition forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, the new authorities announced the disbanding of all armed groups and their integration into the new army, a move that should include pro-Türkiye groups who control swathes of northern Syria.

Turkish forces and their Syrian proxies carried out an offensive from January to March 2018 targeting Kurdish fighters in the Afrin area.

The United Nations has estimated that half of the enclave's 320,000 inhabitants fled during the offensive.

Last month, the Kurdish administration that controls swathes of northern and northeastern Syria struck a deal to integrate its civil and military institutions into those of the central government.

Syria's new leadership has been seeking to unify the country since the December overthrow of Assad after more than 13 years of civil war.

This month, Kurdish fighters withdrew from two neighborhoods of Aleppo as part of the deal.

Syrian Kurdish official Bedran Kurd said on X that the Aleppo city agreement "represents the first phase of a broader plan aimed at ensuring the safe return of the people of Afrin".

The autonomous Kurdish-led administration's military force, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, played a key role in the recapture of the last territory held by the ISIS group in Syria in 2019.