Four secondary school students and a medical doctor have been killed after security forces believed to be from the Rapid Support Force (RSF), dispatched life rounds into persons demonstrating fuel and bread shortage in El-Obeid, North Kordofan State of Sudan.
While the Transitional Military Council (TMC) and the civilian opposition delay putting their signature to a power-sharing deal that would take the country into full democracy, protests are still going on over living conditions.
The latest incident has led to a closure of all schools in North Kordofan State by authorities who say the killings are ‘regrettable,’ according to Sudan’s State News Agency – Suna.
The TMC had not issued any official statement on the killings as at Monday when the protests took place.
Al Jazeera reports that Mohamed Khidr Mohamed Hamid, acting governor of North Kordofan State, told Al-Arabiya TV there had been a "slight friction" between protesters and security forces.
He said he could not say who opened fire but a committee would investigate. While the government were unwilling to state the facts of the shooting, the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), who called the protests, said "live ammunition" was used against a "rally of school students" in the central town of El-Obeid.
The group called on "all citizens and medics" to head to hospitals treating the wounded, in a Facebook post.
"We call on our people to take to the streets ... to denounce the Al-Obeid massacre, to demand the perpetrators be brought to justice," SPA said.