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Asharq Al-Awsat
Asharq Al-Awsat
World
Asharq Al-Awsat

Sudanese Forces Seize Explosives, Weapons during Khartoum Raid

Sudanese military personnel are positioned near a bridge gate during a sit-in protest outside the Defense Ministry in Khartoum, Sudan April 15, 2019. (Reuters)

Sudanese authorities announced Monday that they had seized modern weapons and explosives belts from a property in the capital Khartoum.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) forces seized explosives belts, guns including rifles fitted with silencers, devices used to detonate explosives remotely and satellite telephones during the operation, said the state news agency SUNA.

Acting on a tip, the RSF carried out the raid in al-Taif district.

It was not known if the weapons cache was linked in any way to the country’s current political crisis. The news agency did not say if anyone was arrested or who owned the weapons.

President Omar al-Bashir, who had been in power for 30 years, was ousted last month by the military following months of protests.

The demonstrations, which have been peaceful, have continued as opposition groups demand that the military, which currently rules through a Transitional Military Council, hand over power to civilians.

Ninety protesters have been killed in protest-related violence across Sudan since demonstrations against Bashir erupted in December, a doctors' committee said Monday.

The death toll given by the committee is higher than the official figure of 65 killed in such violence since December.

The committee linked to the Alliance of Freedom and Change -- the group leading the protests -- said the first deaths came on December 20.

That was one day after a demonstration in the central town of Atbara in response to a government decision to triple the price of bread.

It has compiled a list of 90 "martyrs" killed by security forces of Bashir's regime, the committee said.

In the latest case, a protester died Sunday of injuries suffered the previous day in clashes with soldiers and paramilitary forces in Nyala, the provincial capital of South Darfur state.

"Despite restrictions imposed by security forces and remnants of the regime that make it difficult to obtain death certificates, this is the list of martyrs collected from our reliable sources," the committee said.

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