KHARTOUM: A Sudanese policeman has died from his wounds after protesters threw stones at a police vehicle passing close to demonstrations in the capital Khartoum, a police spokesman said on Friday.
The vehicle was passing the area by chance late on Thursday, the spokesman said, adding that a number of suspects had been arrested.
The case brings the official death toll during protests that have spread since Dec. 19 across Sudan to 32, including three security personnel. An opposition-linked doctors’ syndicate said last week that 57 people had been killed in the protests.
“The vehicle was pelted with stones, and they were police returning from training and had no link to the dispersal of the unrest,” said police spokesman Hashem Ali.
Security forces dispersed protests close to the presidential palace in Khartoum on Thursday, rounding up several dozen of them and driving them away in pick up trucks, witnesses said.
On Friday police fired teargas to disperse hundreds of people who protested after leaving a mosque in Omdurman, across the Nile from central Khartoum, witnesses said.
The protesters had blocked a road with stones and branches chanting, “Down, that’s it!,” “Freedom, peace and justice,” and “The people’s choice is revolution.”
The protests were triggered by a deepening economic crisis and have become the most sustained popular challenge to President Omar Al-Bashir since he took power in a coup nearly 30 years ago.
The president and his ruling National Congress Party have shown no sign of bowing to demands to quit and have blamed the unrest on unnamed foreign agents.
Sudanese policeman dies from wounds after protesters stone vehicle
Sudanese policeman dies from wounds after protesters stone vehicle
Tunisia lawmaker jailed eight months for criticizing president
- Ahmed Saidani was taken into custody earlier this month after posting on social media
- Dozens of his critics are being prosecuted or in prison, including under a law criminalizing “false news“
TUNIS: A Tunisian court has sentenced a lawmaker to eight months in prison for criticizing President Kais Saied following recent floods, local media reported.
Ahmed Saidani was taken into custody earlier this month after posting on social media about Saied’s visits to areas affected by floods, calling him the “supreme commander of sanitation and stormwater drainage.”
Saidani’s lawyer, Houssem Eddine Ben Attia, had told AFP his client was being prosecuted under a telecommunications law against “harming others via social media,” which carries up to two years in prison.
Rights groups have warned of a rollback on freedoms in Tunisia since Saied staged a sweeping power grab in 2021.
Dozens of his critics are being prosecuted or in prison, including under a law criminalizing “false news.”
Saidani had backed Saied’s power grab and the detention of several opposition figures, but has recently become vocally critical of the president.
At least five people died and others were still missing after Tunisia was hit by its heaviest rainfall in more than 70 years last month.
