Death toll from Sudan protest camp rises to more than 30

Sudan’s public prosecutor has set up a committee to investigate violence at the main protest site outside the Defense Ministry headquarters in Khartoum, state news agency SUNA said on Monday.

Security forces stormed the protest camp in the early hours of Monday morning and the number of people killed in the dispersal of a protest camp in the centre of the Sudanese capital Khartoum rose to more than 30, an opposition-linked doctors’ committee said.

Footage shared on social media and verified by Reuters showed chaotic scenes of people fleeing through streets as sustained bursts of gunfire crackled in the air during violence that drew rapid Western and African censure.

WATCH: Sudanese forces storm protest camp, nine dead

The committee said the number was likely to rise as many casualties are still unaccounted for.

Monday’s violence is likely to deal a blow to hopes for a restart to stalled talks and a negotiated settlement over who should govern in a transitional period after Bashir’s overthrow.