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Hundreds protest in Sudan city against pupils’ killing
AL-OBEID, Sudan, July 31, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Hundreds of protesters marched
through the streets of a central Sudanese city Wednesday, denouncing the
killing of six demonstrators there including schoolchildren at a rally this
week.
“Blood for blood, we don’t want compensation,” chanted men and women as
they marched in Al-Obeid where the killings took place on Monday.
Many carried Sudanese flags and some held photographs of those killed as
they gathered in the downtown area, after marching through several parts of
the city, an AFP correspondent reported.
“It is unacceptable that young people are being killed,” said protester
Fatima Mohamed as behind her crowds chanted revolutionary slogans that have
rocked the country for months.
“These schoolchildren were chanting only slogans. Why were they shot with
bullets?”
“Those who committed these crimes must be brought to justice,” she said.
Tragedy struck the city on Monday when six people, including five
secondary school pupils, were shot dead at a rally against a growing shortage
of bread and fuel in the city.
It was a sudden tripling of the price of bread in December that sparked the
mushrooming protests that led to the toppling of longtime president Omar al-
Bashir by the army in April.
Al-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state some 350 kilometres (220
miles) southwest of Khartoum, remained largely quiet during the long months
of demonstrations.
BSS/AFP/RY/20:38 hrs