Four wounded as protesters clash with army in Darfur

Violence erupted Saturday when crowds of protesters from a camp for displaced people in Darfur clashed with soldiers and paramilitary forces, wounding four security personnel, state media reported.

The incident occurred in Nyala, the provincial capital of South Darfur state, the official SUNA news agency said, quoting the state’s governor Hashim Khalid.

About 5,000 people staged a peaceful march from Attash camp but it they soon unleashed “violence on a unit of armed forces”, in Nyala, Khalid said.

Four members from the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Force were left “critically wounded”, he said, adding that there were no casualties among the protesters.

After attacking the armed forces, protesters tried to seize vehicles belonging to armed forces, Khalid said.

He said the protesters had come out to join an ongoing sit-in held outside the region’s military headquarters and organised by the group spearheading the nationwide protest movement that has rocked Sudan for months.

The umbrella group leading the protests, the Alliance for Freedom and Change, gave a different version of events and called for nationwide protests and marches to condemn what it said was an attack by the army on protesters.

It called to “reject the acts of the regime in its new version, its security apparatus and its militia and condemn the attack on peaceful protesters in Nyala”.

Protest leaders have regularly called for sit-ins outside regional military headquarters, similar to the one held at the main army headquarters in central Khartoum since weeks.

Thousands remain camped outside the Khartoum army complex, demanding that the country’s army rulers hand over power to civilians.

A 10-member military council took power after the army toppled long-time leader Omar al-Bashir on April 11 after months of protests.

Sudan’s western region of Darfur was torn by years of conflict that erupted in 2003 when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against Khartoum’s Arab-dominated government, accusing it of economic and political marginalisation.

The United Nations says about 300,000 people have been killed in Darfur since 2003 and another 2.5 million people displaced.

Bashir is wanted by the Hague-based International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and genocide charges in Darfur. He denies the charges.

In recent years Darfur has seen an overall fall in violence, but on April 13 there were clashes reported in Camp Kalma that left 14 people dead, according to state media.

AFP