Protester Shot Dead in Sudan Rallies after State of Emergency Lifted

Sudanese demonstrators pray before taking the streets in Khartoum on June 3, 2022 to demand justice for scores of pro-democracy protesters killed during the suppression of a 2019 sit-in against now ousted leader Omar al-Bashir. (AFP)
Sudanese demonstrators pray before taking the streets in Khartoum on June 3, 2022 to demand justice for scores of pro-democracy protesters killed during the suppression of a 2019 sit-in against now ousted leader Omar al-Bashir. (AFP)
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Protester Shot Dead in Sudan Rallies after State of Emergency Lifted

Sudanese demonstrators pray before taking the streets in Khartoum on June 3, 2022 to demand justice for scores of pro-democracy protesters killed during the suppression of a 2019 sit-in against now ousted leader Omar al-Bashir. (AFP)
Sudanese demonstrators pray before taking the streets in Khartoum on June 3, 2022 to demand justice for scores of pro-democracy protesters killed during the suppression of a 2019 sit-in against now ousted leader Omar al-Bashir. (AFP)

A protester died from a gunshot wound in the chest in Sudan's capital Khartoum on Friday, medics said, as demonstrators rallied across the country less than a week after military rulers lifted a state of emergency.

The protests marked the third anniversary of a deadly raid on a sit-in calling for civilian rule shortly after the overthrow of long-time leader Omar al-Bashir.

The military and civilian groups agreed to share power in the summer of 2019, but that arrangement was ended by a coup last October.

There have been frequent anti-military rallies ever since.

"Protests will continue until we win justice for our martyrs and democratic rule," said Osama Mohamed, a 24-year-old marching across the Nile from Khartoum in Omdurman, where protesters blocked a main intersection and faced tear gas from security forces.

Protesters blame security forces for killing about 130 people in the June 3, 2019, raid as they cleared a sit-in in central Khartoum, based on a toll calculated by medics. Authorities acknowledge 87 deaths.

A committee investigating the incident has paused its activity since the coup, a member told Reuters.

Protesters in Omdurman on Friday chanted "our martyrs haven't died, they are here with the revolutionaries". They carried photos and banners of protesters who died in the raid.

The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors said the protester who died on Friday was killed as security forces used heavy gunfire against rallies in Khartoum's Sahafa district.

There was no immediate comment from police. Authorities have previously said they allow peaceful protests and casualties will be investigated.

Medics say 99 people have been killed in anti-coup protests.

United Nations and African Union-led efforts to broker political mediation have made little progress, with a new round of talks to begin next week.

Military rulers facing an economic crisis say they lifted the state of emergency as a trust-building measure.



Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
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Evidence of Ongoing 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Darfur, Says ICC Deputy Prosecutor

A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo
A boy sits atop a hill overlooking a refugee camp near the Chad-Sudan border, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig/File Photo

There are "reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity" are being committed in war-ravaged Sudan's western Darfur region, the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said.

Outlining her office's probe of the devastating conflict which has raged since 2023, Nazhat Shameem Khan told the UN Security Council that it was "difficult to find appropriate words to describe the depth of suffering in Darfur," AFP reported.

"On the basis of our independent investigations, the position of our office is clear. We have reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity, have been and are continuing to be committed in Darfur," she said.

The prosecutor's office focused its probe on crimes committed in West Darfur, Khan said, interviewing victims who fled to neighboring Chad.

She detailed an "intolerable" humanitarian situation, with apparent targeting of hospitals and humanitarian convoys, while warning that "famine is escalating" as aid is unable to reach "those in dire need."

"People are being deprived of water and food. Rape and sexual violence are being weaponized," Khan said, adding that abductions for ransom had become "common practice."

"And yet we should not be under any illusion, things can still get worse."

The Security Council referred the situation in Darfur to the ICC in 2005, with some 300,000 people killed during conflict in the region in the 2000s.

In 2023, the ICC opened a fresh probe into war crimes in Darfur after a new conflict erupted between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The RSF's predecessor, the Janjaweed militia, was accused of genocide two decades ago in the vast western region.

ICC judges are expected to deliver their first decision on crimes committed in Darfur two decades ago in the case of Ali Mohamed Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, known as Ali Kosheib, after the trial ended in 2024.

"I wish to be clear to those on the ground in Darfur now, to those who are inflicting unimaginable atrocities on its population -- they may feel a sense of impunity at this moment, as Ali Kosheib may have felt in the past," said Khan.

"But we are working intensively to ensure that the Ali Kosheib trial represents only the first of many in relation to this situation at the International Criminal Court," she added.