Sudanese protestors resist bid to break army HQ sit-in

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AA): Sudan’s rapid support forces on Saturday tried to break up a popular ongoing sit-in in front of the army headquarters in the capital Khartoum, but the protestors resisted, eyewitnesses told Anadolu Agency.

Soldiers of the rapid support force — paramilitary forces traditionally attached to the government — on Saturday started removing concrete barriers and barricades erected by the protestors. Facing resistance, they clashed with the protesters, injuring one person who was immediately rushed to a field clinic attached to the sit-in, eyewitnesses said.

“High-ranking military officers arrived at the scene of the clashes between the rapid support forces and the protesters declaring that the peaceful citizens were under the protection of the army, and no force would be able to forcibly break their sit-in,” said one eyewitness.

Eyewitnesses said it was “individual soldiers” of the rapid support forces who had tried to break up the protest “as their commander, Mohamed Hamdan Daqlo, declared more than once his refusal to break up the sit-in by force.”

Demonstrators have staged a sit-in outside the main army headquarters as part of protests against longtime President Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted by the military last month after three decades in power.

The army also established a military council to run the country for a transitional period of two years.

Demonstrators, however, have refused to end their sit-in, calling for the transfer of power to a civilian government.