( 24 October
2021) The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) calls on
Sudanese authorities to urgently
investigate the injuring of 17 peaceful demonstrartors that occurred on 21
October 2021 in Khartoum. The transitional government should urgently set up an
independent and impartial commission to ensure an immediate and effective
investigation into the full scale of injuring, identify those responsible, and
recommend ways to hold them accountable.
On
21 October 2021, peaceful demonstrations broke out in different cities in Sudan
including Khartoum demanding and supporting civilian rule in Sudan. In
Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman, security forces stationed at the Armed Forces
Bridge confronted peaceful demonstrators coming from different neighborhoods in
front of the parliament building. They threw tear gas and opened live
ammunition at peaceful demonstrators causing injuries to at least 17 peaceful
demonstrators.
The
violent response from the security forces towards the peaceful demonstrators
raises concerns about the continued reliance on repressive tactics to disrupt
peaceful assembly. ACJPS calls on the Government of Sudan to respect the
peoples’ rights to freedom of assembly, association and expression as
guaranteed in international standards and UN treaties ratified by Sudan and
refrain from using excessive force to disperse protests.
The
policing of assemblies must respect the exercise of the right to peacefully
assemble and restrict the use of force to extremely necessary circumstances, in
line with international standards. Sudanese authorities should ensure law
enforcement agencies comply with international standards on the use of force.
It should be made clear that arbitrary or abusive use of force by security
forces will be punished.
ACJPS
has received details of people injured as follows:
Abu
talib Faisal (male), 20-years-old ( Right hand injury)
Abubaker
Mirghani Ismaeel (male), 20-years-old (Leg injury)
Ahmed
Hamdan Ahmed (male), 35-years-old (Head injury)
Ahmedc
Hamid Saeed (male), 31-years-old ( Right Hand injury)
Aljaili
Ibrahim Altayib(male), 30-years-old (A gunshot wound on the left leg)
Alzain
Abdelhadi (male), 70-years-old (Tear gas suffocation)
Ibrahim
Abdalla (male), 23-years-old (Head injury)
Mahir
Osman (male), 35-years-old (Injury on both hands)
Mazin
Ayman (male), 22-years-old (A gushot wound on the abdomen)
Mohamed
Abdelgadir (male), 21-years-old (A gunshot wound on the right foot)
Mohamed
Alhaj Mohamed (male), 27-years-old (Tear gas suffocation)
Mohamed
Alzain (male), 18-years-old (Head injury)
Mohamed
Hassan Ibrahim (male), 23-years-old (A gunshot wound on the right arm)
Shol
Deing (male), 25-years-old ( Right Hand injury)
Wisam
Mahdi (male), 20-years-old (Tear gas suffocation)
Yasir
Alkamil Saeed (male), 23-years-old ( Left hand injury)
Zohal
Abdelrahman (female), 23-years-old ( sustained wounds in different parts of her
body)
ACJPS
reiterates its calls to the Transitional Government to:
Respect
and ensure the right to peacefully assemble,
Investigate
the abusive use of force including the killings and injuring of protesters with
an aim to identify and hold perpetrators accountable,
Ensure
access to free treatment and rehabilitation to individuals injured through the
violent dispersal by the authorities,
Refrain
from deploying armed forces and government-sponsored militias including Rapid
Support Forces to disperse peaceful gatherings,
Ensure
police and other security services policing demonstrations or performing other
law enforcement duties receive adequate training and caution on the use of
force in line with UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the UN
Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials.
Background
Although Articles 56
and 57 of the Constitutional Charter guarantees the freedom of expression and
assembly respectively, Sudanese authorities have progressively and deliberately
continued violating these rights using force including firing of live
ammunition to disperse peaceful protests.
On 11 May 2021, ACJPS documented the killing of two peaceful protesters
and injury of 37 others in Khartoum. In July 2020, ACJPS documented the killing
of 12 peaceful protesters and injury of 14 others in Fata Borno, North Darfur
state whilst in El-obeid, three peaceful protesters were killed in August 2019.
A
lack of accountability for these crimes has fostered a climate of impunity in
Sudan .To date, several perpetrators of human rights violations have not been
held accountable mainly due to the immunity laws that protect perpetrators and
a lack of political will. The National Security Act was amended in July 2020 to
remove immunity granted to members of National Intelligence Security Services,
now rebranded as the General Intelligence Services. However, there is still
need to amend laws that protect the police, army and other security agencies
from prosecution of human rights abuses.
For
further information, contact Mossaad Mohamed Ali at: mossaad.ali@acjps.org