Asmaa Al-Hussaini (Khartoum)
Thousands of Sudanese participated in a huge march that started yesterday towards the presidential palace in Khartoum, condemning the tribal violence that killed dozens of people in the “Blue Nile” regions adjacent to the Ethiopian border and the city of Kassala in the east of the country, while security forces tried to confront the protesters with liquefied gas. Tears and sound bombs, amid reports of a number of injuries.
The participants in the march raised slogans denouncing the slow response of the security services and accusing influential people in the country of inciting violence in order to achieve political goals. And the security forces and the army reinforced their deployment in the center of the capital and the areas near the General Command of the Army and the Presidential Palace.
This latest tribal violence began on Thursday in the Blue Nile region, following disputes between tribal groups over issues related to the divisions and leadership of the native administration in the region, before it spread to other regions.
The “Freedom and Change” forces accused the “Brotherhood” of trying to return to the forefront of power by inflaming racist tendencies and playing the tribal card.
She considered, during a press conference held yesterday in Khartoum, that “the Brotherhood, in all its names, has been unable to find acceptance among the Sudanese people and is looking for a return now through tribal facades and fueling racist tendencies.” And announced the formation of the largest front against hate speech in the country.
“We have decided to form the widest front to stop hate speech in the country,” said Ayman Nimr, a leader in the “Freedom and Change” forces.
Nimr revealed that processions were conducted in the name of “Sudan, the One Homeland” in Khartoum and several Sudanese cities on July 24, in protest against tribal violence and in solidarity with the families of the victims.
He added: “We decided to send a leading political and humanitarian delegation to monitor the events of the tribal fighting, and to provide humanitarian aid to those affected.”
He continued, “There is no stability in the country without the formation of a democratic civil authority based on diversity and managing it within the framework of a single civil state.”
In light of a state of tension in a number of cities and regions of the country, fears are growing of serious repercussions that may result from the expansion of tribal violence that has spread to the east, as the Kassala region in the east of the country, which is about a thousand kilometers from the Blue Nile, witnessed yesterday, burning and looting. .
And the Sudanese news agency “SUNA” reported that security reinforcements arrived in the conflict areas in the states of Blue Nile and Kassala.
SUNA stated that security reinforcements from the Central Reserve Forces arrived in areas that witnessed some conflicts and events in the states of Blue Nile and Kassala, through police aviation.
She pointed out that this measure comes within the framework of the Security and Defense Committee’s directives to send military reinforcements to those areas.
She added: “The Presidency of the Police Forces dispatched these forces, which arrived in record time, and began their duties upon their arrival, as they contributed to restoring matters and achieving security and stability in those states, which strengthened security and imposed the prestige of the state and the rule of law.”
In 2020, the transitional authority signed peace agreements with the Darfur rebels and promised to establish democracy in the far Sudan, but the peace agreement did not end the tribal conflicts that have caused hundreds of deaths in recent months, especially in the Darfur region on the border with Chad.
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