CAIRO: Sudanese activists say 16 people, including a soldier, have been killed since the military forced President Omar Al-Bashir from power on Thursday following months of protests.
The Sudan Doctors Committee, an affiliate of the Sudanese Professionals Association, which has been spearheading the protests, said Saturday that 13 people were shot dead on Thursday and three others, including the soldier, were killed Friday. It says they died “at the hands of regime forces and its shadow militias.”
Sudanese police said late Friday that the 16 were killed by “stray bullets,” and that at least 20 people were wounded at rallies and sit-ins across the country.
Activists have welcomed Al-Bashir’s ouster while calling for a swift transition to a civilian government, with many fearing the military intends to retain power.
Sudan activists: ‘Regime’ kills 16 after Al-Bashir’s ouster
Sudan activists: ‘Regime’ kills 16 after Al-Bashir’s ouster
- The Sudan Doctors Committee said the people were killed by regime forces and its shadow militia
- Sudanese police said at least 20 people were injured during the demonstrations
Syria Kurds chief says ‘all efforts’ being made to salvage deal with Damascus
- Abdi said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army, remained committed to the deal
- The two sides were working toward “mutual understanding” on military integration and counter-terrorism
DAMASCUS: Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said Thursday that “all efforts” were being made to prevent the collapse of talks on an agreement with Damascus to integrate his forces into the central government.
The remarks came days after Aleppo saw deadly clashes between the two sides before their respective leaders ordered a ceasefire.
In March, Abdi signed a deal with Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa to merge the Kurds’ semi-autonomous administration into the government by year’s end, but differences have held up its implementation.
Abdi said the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army, remained committed to the deal, adding in a statement that the two sides were working toward “mutual understanding” on military integration and counter-terrorism, and pledging further meetings with Damascus.
Downplaying the year-end deadline, he said the deal “did not specify a time limit for its ending or for the return to military solutions.”
He added that “all efforts are being made to prevent the collapse of this process” and that he considered failure unlikely.
Abdi also repeated the SDF’s demand for decentralization, which has been rejected by Syria’s Islamist authorities, who took power after ousting longtime ruler Bashar Assad last year.
Turkiye, an important ally of Syria’s new leaders, sees the presence of Kurdish forces on its border as a security threat.
In Damascus this week, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stressed the importance of the Kurds’ integration, having warned the week before that patience with the SDF “is running out.”
The SDF control large swathes of the country’s oil-rich north and northeast, and with the support of a US-led international coalition, were integral to the territorial defeat of the Daesh group in Syria in 2019.
Syria last month joined the anti-IS coalition and has announced operations against the jihadist group in recent days.
