Oyogist.com has learned that a Sudanese court on Thursday had sentenced to death six officers in the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces for the 2019 killing of six students who were protesting over fuel and food shortage.
The protesters, including four schoolchildren, were shot dead in July 2019 in the city of Al-Obeid in North Kordofan, sparking outrage across Sudan.Days later, nine members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)paramilitary unity were arrested.
At their trial on Thursday, Judge Mohamed Rahma sentenced six of the defendants to death, acquitted two others, and referred one to a juvenile court, as he was under 18.
Rahma said the actions of six found guilty were “unnecessary”, and were “not on par with” the alleged verbal provocations by protesters during the otherwise peaceful demonstration.
The prosecution of personnel from the RSF which is commanded by the deputy head of Sudan’s transitional governing body – over these killings and others alleged is seen as a test of the government’s commitment to democratisation after decades of autocratic Islamist rule.
