US, UK condemn 'attacks' on Sudan protesters

The US Embassy in Sudan is calling on Sudanese security forces to stop their "attacks against protesters and other civilians."

The embassy said via Facebook that apparent attempts by Sudanese troops to move against a months-long protest camp in the capital are "wrong," and that it holds the country's Transitional Military Council responsible for the attacks.

The British ambassador in Sudan, Ifran Siddiq, says he is "extremely concerned by the heavy gunfire" he'd heard from his official home in Khartoum, as well as "reports that Sudanese security forces are attacking the protest sit-in site, resulting in casualties."

"No excuse for any such attack," he said via Twitter.

 

Sudan's ruling military council confirms there have been clashes between troops and protesters in a sit-in area in the capital, Khartoum.

Shams al-Deen al-Kabashi, spokesman for the council, said in televised remarks that the military was targeting what it considers a problematic area near the sit-in, nicknamed "Colombia."

He said a number of people from that area then moved to the main protest site, and that the clashes had been between security forces and those people.

He did not make clear if the military's goal was to break up the entire sit-in camp, but said forces are moving to open blocked roads across the capital.

In the same "Colombia" area, three people, including a woman, were killed by security forces in recent days.

Sudanese protest leaders say at least five people were killed as security forces moved against a protest sit-in camp in the capital, besieging the site and setting fire to tents.

The Sudan Doctors' Committee said Monday that an unspecified but high number had been wounded. The group said medical personnel and injured people were trapped in clinics in the area, and demanded that they be allowed to leave.