Sudanese opposition accuses government of killing soldiers

Leader of the Sudanese Ummah opposition party al-Sadiq al-Mahdi said that more than 100 Sudanese soldiers were killed in a "massacre" when they asked for leave. Al-Mahdi thereby contradicted the official account of the incident.

The Sudanese government said that 55 soldiers died due to drowning, but al-Mahdi, the former Sudanese Premier, said that "between 100 and 200 died either by being shot dead or drowned."

He said the incident took place on Friday, April 3 following a "confrontation between youths and their guards who prevented them from spending Eid al-Adha holiday with their families," adding the government did not deliver the bodies of the dead youths to their relatives. Rather they were buried in collective tombs, he said.

Last week, the Sudanese paper Alwan said that some 55 soldiers died after drowning when the boat transporting them sank in the Blue Nile while fleeing a training camp 30 km southeast of Khartoum. The paper said the leadership of at-Eilfoun camp noted the absence of 260 soldiers out of 2,100.