Eleven people were killed in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Tuesday, including six members of “state forces”, the government’s spokesman said on Wednesday, as protesters campaign for an end to President Omar al-Bashir’s 30-year rule.
Uniformed personnel from Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) twice tried to disperse the thousands of anti-government protesters camped outside the Defence Ministry, the minister said, citing a report by the Khartoum state police chief.
But government soldiers guarding the compound came out both times to protect the demonstrators, firing shots in the air and deploying troops around the area.
The protests are the most sustained challenge Bashir has faced in his three decades in power.
The Defence Ministry is in a compound that also houses Bashir’s residence and the NISS headquarters.
The government spokesman and information minister Hassan Ismail said the Khartoum state police chief had delivered a report stating that 11 people had died in “incidents yesterday (Tuesday), including six members of the regular forces”. He gave no further details on how they died.
Ismail also quoted the police chief as saying the authorities had foiled a “criminal plot” to burn down some police stations in some parts of the capital.
The head of the main opposition Umma Party, Sadiq al-Mahdi, said on Tuesday that around 20 people have been killed and dozens wounded in dawn attacks on the sit-in outside the defence ministry since it began on Saturday.