UPDATE - Death toll from crackdown in Sudan reaches 108

UPDATES WITH HEALTH MINISTRY'S REMARK

By Mohammed Amin

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AA) – The death toll from a government crackdown on protesters in Sudan’s capital has risen to 108, the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors said Wednesday.

Three children from one family were among the victims, said the committee, adding more than 230 have been injured.

“The number of deaths has climbed to 108 as more bodies were found in the Nile River and three children from one family were killed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF),” the committee said in a statement.

“An employer at the civil aviation authority was also shot dead by the RSF after he refused to break up a strike by civil aviation employees since Tuesday,” it added.

The committee noted that more bodies are still being retrieved from the Nile.

In response, the country's Deputy Health Minister, Solaiman Abdul Jabbar, said Thursday morning that the death toll has not exceeded 46, Sudan News Agency reported.

"The operation carried out by the joint forces to clean up the area of Columbia [Nile-side area in Khartoum] and the subsequent procedures, caused only a few deaths … The number did not exceed 46," the official said.

Government forces in Khartoum have engaged in a violent crackdown since Monday morning when they broke up a long-running sit-in by pro-democracy protesters outside military headquarters.

Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, RSF leader and deputy chairman of the ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC), has denied the involvement of his forces in the killings, saying unknown forces wearing RSF uniforms were responsible for the deaths.

Sudan has remained in turmoil since April 11, when the 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 presidential elections.

Demonstrators, however, have remained on the streets demanding that the TMC relinquish power at the earliest possible date to a civilian authority.

* Mahmoud Barakat contributed to this story from Ankara