KHARTOUM: The central Khartoum military region accused “unruly elements” of attacking a vehicle used by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and seizing it near the protest site.
“The protest site has become unsafe and represents a danger to the revolution and the revolutionaries and threatens the coherence of the state and its national security,” Gen. Bahar Ahmed Al-Bahar, head of the central region in Khartoum said in a statement he read on television.
Tens of thousands of protesters had converged on an encampment heeding a call by protest leaders to step up pressure on the Transitional Military Council (TMC) to hand over power to civilians, following a two-day strike observed earlier this week.
Sudanese security forces on Thursday delivered an order by the TMC to close down the offices of Qatar-based Al Jazeera Television without giving a reason, the head of the office said. TMC officials could not immediately be reached for a comment on the report.
Stability in strategically located Sudan is crucial for the security of a volatile region struggling against insurgencies, including the Horn of Africa through Egypt and Libya. Various powers, including wealthy Gulf Arab states, are trying to influence its path.
A Reuters witness said that the protesters who had converged on the protest site chanted slogans against the RSF, a paramilitary force led by the deputy head of the TMC, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
Some stood in front of military trucks used by the force which controls the capital.
Dagalo, who goes by the name Hemedti, has accused protesters of receiving support from abroad and said they were not entitled to claim they speak for all Sudanese.
Talks between the Declaration of Freedom and Change Forces (DFCF), a coalition of demonstrators and opposition groups, and the TMC have stalled amid differences over whether the military would control a proposed sovereign body that would lead Sudan during a three-year transitional period.
The DFCF had previously said that the military council has demanded a two-thirds majority, of eight to three, on the sovereign council that will lead the country of 40 million.
The coalition had called for a two-day strike of public and private enterprises from Tuesday, and threatened to call for general civil disobedience if the military does not heed their demands.
Sudan’s military rulers say protest site threatens stability
Sudan’s military rulers say protest site threatens stability
- Stability in strategically located Sudan is crucial for the security of a volatile region struggling against insurgencies
Israeli fire kills three in Gaza, as US seeks to advance Gaza deal
- Talks were held on Saturday
CAIRO: Israeli fire killed three Palestinians in two separate incidents in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, while an Israeli drone wounded four others in Gaza City, local health authorities said on Sunday.
Medics said Israeli fire killed at least two people east of Tuffah neighborhood in the northern Gaza Strip, while a 41-year-old man was killed by Israeli forces in Khan Younis, in the south of the enclave.
Earlier medical workers said an Israeli drone exploded on the rooftop of a multi-floor building in Gaza City, wounding four civilians in the street nearby.
There was no comment by the Israeli military on any of the incidents.
US ENVOYS MEET WITH ISRAEL PM NETANYAHU
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met in Israel on Saturday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mainly to discuss Gaza, Witkoff said on Sunday.
“The discussion was constructive and positive, with both sides aligned on next steps and the importance of continued cooperation on all matters critical to the region,” Witkoff said in a post on X.
Gaza has been reduced to rubble in the war that was triggered by an attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on southern Israel on October 7, 2023 in which 1,200 people were killed, according to Israeli tallies.
The Gaza health ministry says more than 71,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed by Israeli fire since then. It also says that at least 480 people have been killed by Israeli fire since a ceasefire agreement came into effect last October.
BOTH SIDES TRADE BLAME FOR VIOLATIONS
Israel has said four soldiers had been killed by militants in Gaza since the ceasefire began. Both sides have traded blame for violations of the truce.
Earlier this month, Washington said the plan had moved into a second phase, in which Israel is expected to withdraw troops further from Gaza, and Hamas is due to yield control of the territory’s administration.
Meanwhile, in Khan Younis, more than 100 people attended the funeral of a person killed by Israeli drone fire on Saturday, after holding special prayers in front of his white-shrouded body at the morgue in Nasser Hospital.
“They are liars, there is no ceasefire,” said Fares Erheimat, a relative of the dead man, during the funeral.
