Sudanese security forces on Thursday raided Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television and its Al Hadath news channel in Khartoum and confiscated their equipment.
CCTV footage of the raid shows security personnel attacking employees. The Dubai-based satellite television station announced that several of its journalists were injured in the attack.
The raid came moments after Sudanese forces had fired tear gas and live ammunition at protesters rallying against the October 25 military coup in the country’s capital and elsewhere.
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A demonstrator told the AFP that she was marching “for the fall of military power” and above all “against the political agreement”, a text which recently allowed the civilian Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok to leave house arrest but also General Burhane to remain at the head of the transitional authorities for two more years.
According to a pro-democracy doctors’ union, four protesters were shot dead in Omdurman, a northwestern suburb of Khartoum during the protest.
The doctors added, the crackdown has now seen at least 52 people killed in protest-related violence.
Asharq, another Saudi-funded channel, reported that one of its crews was prevented from covering the protest by security forces.
Authorities had earlier that day cut mobile internet and telephone calls but restored them in the evening after the demonstrators had dispersed.
To prevent as much as possible the gatherings, the police on Wednesday evening installed containers across the bridges linking Khartoum to its suburbs.
The U.N. mission in Sudan and the U.S. embassy condemned the deaths of the protesters and the attacks on the media.
On December 19, security forces were accused by the United Nations of raping female protesters in an attempt to break up the protest.
In an appeal relayed by Facebook pages maintained by Sudanese living abroad, the doctors claimed that law enforcement agencies “prevented ambulances from approaching” the victims and even forced a protester with a gunshot wound to the neck and on life support to get out of one of the vehicles.
“The coup plotters used live ammunition against the demonstrators,” they said, reporting “dozens of injuries. The doctors called in reinforcements from the Arbain hospital in Omdurman. (AN)
