2019 — Khartoum's Fallen

On June 3, 2019, paramilitaries stormed the pro-democracy sit-in outside Sudan's army headquarters in Khartoum, where thousands had camped for weeks demanding civilian rule. The assault came days after talks collapsed between protesters and the generals who had ousted Omar al-Bashir, turning a hopeful encampment into a scene of bloodshed.

UN-backed investigators later estimated at least one hundred and twenty-eight dead and six hundred and fifty wounded, figures the military council disputed. Even the argument over the numbers tells part of the story: a people asking for civilian rule, an armed power refusing to yield it, and a capital left to count its fallen.