Deaths, injuries and detentions during civil demonstrations in Sudan: a secondary data analysis

Maysoon Dahab,Francesco Checchi,Ahmed Kodouda,Nada Abdelmagid

doi:10.1186/s13031-019-0199-8

Abstract

BackgroundSince December 2018, the latest wave of anti-government protests in Sudan has led to deaths, injuries and detentions. We estimated the number of people killed and described patterns of deaths, injuries and detentions up to 9 April 2019.MethodsWe tabulated data from three publicly available lists maintained by Sudanese civil society sources (the Independent Movement, the Sudan Doctors’ Union and the “Lest We Forget” project), and applied to these a capture-recapture statistical technique that models the overlap among lists to estimate the number of deaths not on any list.ResultsWe estimated that about 117 civilians were killed in demonstrations during the above period, a considerably larger number than hitherto reported. Most decedents and injury victims were shot.ConclusionsThis analysis demonstrates the importance of real-time data on political violence collected by civil society initiatives. The de facto Sudanese government should immediately cease attacks against peaceful civilian protesters and put in place guarantees for their safety.

Highlights

Since December 2018, the latest wave of anti-government protests in Sudan has led to deaths, injuries and detentions
During 1 March to 5 April 2019, a further 14 deaths were reported by the Independent Movement, while during 6–9 April two-list capture-recapture analysis suggested 2 unlisted deaths occurred alongside 21 appearing on either or both available lists (Fig. 1)
Our analysis suggests that a considerably larger than hitherto reported number of civilians were killed during protests in Sudan, and that the different civil society-maintained lists of decedents, while providing a precious record of time, person and place patterns, should be analysed jointly in order to estimate a credible total

Summary

Introduction

Since December 2018, the latest wave of anti-government protests in Sudan has led to deaths, injuries and detentions. The most recent wave of anti-government protests in Sudan began on December 19, 2018 in Atbara and spread to other major cities including the capital, Khartoum [1]. Despite the previous government’s state of emergency declaration and banning of rallies, protests and civil disobedience continued, and reports of injuries, arrests and killings of unarmed civilians accumulated [3]. The former Government of Sudan confirmed that 29 people have died

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Discussion

Conclusion