Muzdalifa Mohammed Osman - Khartoum
Security forces in Nyala, capital of South Darfur state, used force to disperse demonstrations Saturday from Attash refugee camp in Darfur, demanding the handover of power to civilians and trying to join an open sit-in in front of the army headquarters in the city center.
Witnesses said demonstrators marched through several neighborhoods and streets of Nyala, chanting and carrying slogans on their way to join the sit-in that began weeks ago before the army leadership, before the authorities intervened and used tear gas to disperse them. Witnesses also reported several injuries among the demonstrators.
According to eyewitnesses who spoke to al-Jazeera Net, camp residents have been complaining for some time about the poor health and service conditions, as well as the continuous decrease in food rations provided by humanitarian agencies, exacerbating the already dire humanitarian conditions inside the camp.
It includes Atash camp, three kilometers north-east of Nyala, the largest capital in South Darfur, according to the latest count of at least 17,000 displaced people.
The displaced person in Darfur, Adam Abdullah, said the displaced had decided to hand over to the military governor in Nyala a note complaining of bad conditions and demanding intervention to reform and improve the humanitarian situation.
"Before the arrival of the procession, mostly children and women, the police and the army fired heavy tear gas canisters and shots were fired into the air to intimidate and disperse the protesters."
The official version
The governor of Southern Darfur, Major General Hatem Khaled Mahmoud, hurried to hold a press conference to explain the circumstances. He confirmed that the displaced had plans to burn the Humanitarian Aid Commission - the governmental body supervising the conditions of the camps - after they burned their office inside the camp two days ago.
He also stressed the dispersal of the group, which was held around the army command in Nyala, saying that "the protest about the leadership has become a red line."
He pointed out that the procession coming from Atash began to peacefully raise specific demands, but soon turned into sabotage and chaos and targeting of government buildings and property of citizens.
"The security forces had to deal with the situation and disperse the protesters with tear gas," he said, adding that no injuries were reported among the citizens. He also said five members of the regular forces were wounded by injuries to white weapons and stones.
The governor stressed that his government will not allow in the future to organize any procession in the city, even if he was peaceful to miss the opportunity of the so-called "Almndsen and saboteurs" to exploit the situation in the implementation of security breaches.
Threat to revolution
The forces of the Declaration of Freedom and Change issued a statement denouncing what happened in Nyala, describing what the security services and "remnants of the regime" had done as a "serious threat to the revolution and its gains".
"The process of dismantling the sit-in in Nyala by force and the terror of the rioters is a practice that reflects the continuation of the same practices of the old regime by working against the right to peaceful expression, terrorizing peaceful revolutionaries and perpetuating racism against the corrupt regime," it said in its statement.
"The targeting of the Nyala and Zalingei rebels" will spur us to further resistance until all the objectives of the revolution are achieved, reject violence, break the tyranny and restore full and undeniable justice, "she said.
The forces of the Declaration of Freedom and Change also called on the people of Nyala to gather around the headquarters of the 16th Infantry Division to restore the sit-in.