Muhammet Kursun and Adil Essabiti
04 June 2019•Update: 06 June 2019
TEHRAN/TUNIS
Iran and Tunisia’s Ennahda movement have both expressed solidarity with anti-regime protesters in Sudan, at least 35 of whom were killed Monday night in Khartoum by security forces.
In a Tuesday statement, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Seyyed Abbas Mousavi voiced his “deep concern over the escalation of tension and mounting conflict in Sudan”.
Mousavi also stressed the need “to address the [Sudanese] people’s demand for a swift transition of power to a civilian authority”.
In its own statement, Tunisia’s Ennahda movement condemned “the crimes committed against peaceful protesters [in Khartoum] and the Sudanese people”.
Ennahda, which holds 68 seats in Tunisia’s parliament, went on to express its “total solidarity with Sudan’s peaceful demonstrators and the Sudanese people’s aspirations for freedom and democracy”.
The group also called on Sudan’s ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC) to refrain from “meeting legitimate popular demands with violence”.
At least 35 demonstrators were killed Monday night -- and hundreds more injured -- when security forces tried to disperse an ongoing sit-on outside army headquarters in Khartoum, according to the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors.
Sudan has remained in relative turmoil since April 11, when the country’s military establishment announced the “removal” of President Omar al-Bashir after months of popular protests against his 30-year rule.
The TMC is now overseeing a two-year “transitional period” during which it has pledged to hold free presidential elections.
Demonstrators, however, have remained on the streets to demand that the ruling military council relinquish power -- at the earliest possible date -- to a civilian authority.
