This archive report was first published on 30 July 2019.
On Monday, a student protest in El-Obeid, Sudan, turned deadly when security forces opened fire on high school pupils, killing at least four schoolchildren and one adult, according to campaigners.
The protest was sparked by fuel and bread shortages in the capital of North Kordofan state, a time of heightened tension between opposition campaigners and Sudan's military rulers.
The Forces of Freedom and Change coalition of opposition groups accused military and paramilitary forces of indiscriminately firing on the peaceful demonstration and called for nationwide protests in response.
There was no immediate statement from Sudan's ruling military council, but the governor of North Kordofan, General Al-Sadiq al-Tayeb Abdallah, said that three high school students and two other citizens died when 'infiltrators' diverted a peaceful demonstration from its course and attacked a bank branch and tried to attack another.
Residents reported that a building belonging to the Bank of Khartoum was set on fire during the unrest in El-Obeid, 400 km southwest of the capital Khartoum.
As the situation unfolded, videos circulated on social media purported to show pupils protesting outside El-Obeid's main hospital against the killings and injuries.
Opposition activists, unions, and professional groups had launched nationwide protests against mounting economic hardship in December last year, and the Forces of Freedom and Change coalition called for Monday's attackers in El-Obeid to be held accountable and for the ruling military council to immediately agree the details of a new transitional authority.
