|
|
 Re: . (Re: Kostawi)
|
Weekend rioting in Port Sudan killed at least 25, tribal official says
Sun Jan 30, 7:49 PM ET
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) - A representative of tribesmen who clashed with police in the Red Sea coastal city of Port Sudan said Sunday at least 25 people had died and 196 were injured, significantly raising earlier casualty tolls given by the tribe.
The United Nations (news - web sites) expressed concern that if violence in eastern Sudan was not contained, it could escalate tensions across a country fractured by separate wars.
After Saturday's riots, Red Sea governor General Hatim al-Wasilah said 14 people had died and 16 were injured when police tried to stop widespread #####ng and vandalism.
But a representative of the Beja tribe said 23 tribesmen were killed and about 100 others were injured.
The United Nations said police fired on peaceful demonstrators in the poor, underdeveloped city about 700 kilometres northeast of the capital of Khartoum. The rioting appeared to be economically motivated.
Amina Dhirar, head of the Beja Congress movement in Khartoum, told The Associated Press on Sunday that at least 25 demonstrators had been killed, adding that the figure could be higher since "some parents buried their dead, preferring not to bring them to the morgue."
Dhirar said eight of the injured were in critical condition and police have detained 101 Beja tribesmen in Port Sudan.
The ruling party in Khartoum said it sent a high-level delegation representing Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir to Port Sudan to "express (his) condolences" and to assess the situation.
"The UN would be very keen to see all violence stop and this situation contained and resolved in a way that would see the area stabilized so tensions don't escalate across the country," said Radhia Achouri, a UN spokeswoman in Sudan.
Achouri warned Saturday that the clash could open a new front in Sudan, where a nearly two-year-old conflict is raging in the western Darfur region and a peace treaty was reached this month ending the 21-year southern civil war.
Members of the Beja tribe have complained of neglect in eastern Sudan, a poor region where a low-intensity conflict has persisted for 16 years. Poverty-related illnesses, including tuberculosis, are common in the Beja area of Port Sudan, and illiteracy is a major problem.
The Beja Congress, an exiled group representing numerous eastern Sudan tribes, rejected a Jan. 17 accord between the government and opposition groups to end the conflict.
"We as a party think that this peace agreement and the division of wealth and power has ignored us altogether," Dhirar said.
The modernization of the Port Sudan seaport had raised unemployment rates, Dhirar said.
The U.S. Embassy in Sudan warned Americans living in Sudan to avoid unnecessary travel to Port Sudan. The official Sudanese News Agency said a dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed in the area for Saturday and Sunday.
| |
 
|
|
|
|
Kostawi
هاشم نوريت
Marouf Sanad
فيس بوك
تويتر
انستقرام
يوتيوب
بنتيريست