UN human rights expert denounces attacks on Sudan protesters

“I strongly urge the Sudanese military and security forces to … take immediate measures to protect the constitutional rights of the Sudanese people,” Nononsi said in a UN statement.

A UN human rights expert has condemned reports of “excessive use of force” by Sudanese security forces against protesters demanding the country’s military rulers cede power to a civilian-led administration.

Aristide Nononsi, the United Nations independent expert on human rights in Sudan, called on Friday for Sudan’s Transitional Military Council (TMC) to “exercise the utmost restraint” to avoid further violence after at least four people were killed and several others wounded earlier this week at protest sites in the capital, Khartoum. 

At least four people were killed on Monday, according to protesters, when troops in military vehicles using the logo of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fired live ammunition as they tried to clear demonstrators from an avenue near Sudan’s foreign ministry.

The dead included three protesters and a military police officer. 

Two days later, at least 14 people were wounded, some from gunfire, when the RSF again tried to remove demonstrators from central Khartoum, according to the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors.

The head of the RSF, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemeti, is the deputy leader of the military council.

Nononsi called for the military council to launch “thorough, independent and impartial investigations” into all the reported killings of protesters since December, when demonstrations erupted against longtime ruler, Omar al-Bashir.