Sudan arrests paramilitaries over pupils' killing amid new deaths

Arrests follow the fatal shooting of four children & two demonstrators during a rally in Al-Obeid

KHARTOUM: Sudan's ruling generals announced on Friday that nine paramilitaries had been arrested for killing four teenage demonstrators earlier this week as talks with protest leaders over the country's future navigated a second day.

The move against the paramilitary men of the feared Rapid Support Forces (RSF) stemmed from the fatal shooting of four schoolchildren and two other demonstrators during a rally against fuel and bread shortages in the city of Al-Obeid in North Kordofan on Monday.

The killings have sparked anger across Sudan.

"An investigation has been launched into the incident of Al-Obeid and seven members of the RSF were immediately dismissed and handed over to civilian judges for trial," General Shamseddine Kabbashi, spokesperson for the ruling military council, told reporters earlier on Friday. "Yesterday (Thursday), two more RSF members were arrested, so a total of nine have been detained."

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Kabbashi's remarks came after a prolonged negotiation session with protest leaders on Thursday and through the early hours of Friday on a promised transition to civilian rule.

The two sides "continued the talks" later on Friday, protest leader Satea al-Haj told AFP.

On Thursday, four more protesters were shot dead in the capital's twin city of Omdurman, just across the Nile from Khartoum, said doctors linked to the country's protest movement.

The protest movement has long blamed the irregulars of the powerful RSF, whose commander General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo is deputy head of the ruling military council, for the deadly violence against demonstrators.

But after Monday's shootings, a fellow member of the military council, General Jamal Omar, likewise blamed the paramilitaries, which sprang out of the Janjaweed militia notorious for alleged war crimes during the conflict in Darfur.

Speaking to Egypt's Al-Ghad television and other media during a tour of Al-Obeid, Omar said RSF fighters guarding a nearby bank had initially used batons to try to stop the protesters gathering.

"This action led to a reaction from some students who threw stones at the forces," Omar said.

"This made some members of the force act in their individual capacity to open fire on protesters. We have identified those who fired live ammunition that led to the killing of the six."

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The RSF helped the regular army topple longtime president Omar al Bashir in April following months of mass protests against his rule. But its fighters, who have deployed in cities across Sudan, retain the fearsome reputation they won under the old regime.

Protesters have expressed anger at the paramilitaries' apparent impunity. "Where is the investigation committee?" demonstrators chanted in north Khartoum on Thursday.

Talks between protest leaders and the generals were suspended after the Al-Obeid killings, which drew international condemnation, including from the Ethiopian mediator.

But the negotiations eventually got underway late on Thursday.

On the table are the remaining details of the political transition set out in a landmark power-sharing deal signed on July 17.

They include the powers of a proposed joint civilian-military ruling body, the deployment of security forces and immunity for the generals over protest-related violence.

"Both sides agreed to meet today at 8.00pm to complete the negotiations," African Union mediator Mohamed El Hacen Lebatt had earlier told reporters, before the protest movement confirmed that dialogue was once again underway.

Protest leaders were upbeat. Negotiator Ibrahim al-Amin predicted "good news" from Friday evening's session. "We have reached consensus on most of the points," he said.

The talks have repeatedly been suspended and remained deadlocked for weeks after a brutal raid on a protest camp in Khartoum on June 3 that was widely blamed on the RSF.

At least 127 people were killed, according to doctors linked to the protesters. Officials have given a much lower death toll.

It took intense mediation from African Union and Ethiopian diplomats to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table.