\n Sudan's public prosecutor announced Monday the discovery of a mass grave containing conscripts allegedly killed after trying to flee a military camp in 1998 under ousted president Omar al-Bashir's regime.\n<\/p>\n
\n The grim discovery came as part of investigations into misdeeds committed under al-Bashir, who ruled the country with an iron fist before the army deposed him amid huge street protests in April 2019.\n<\/p>\n
\n A investigating committee \"found the mass grave in the past four days after hearing witness accounts,\" about killings at Ailafoon military camp, public prosecutor Tagelsir al-Hebr told reporters in Khartoum.\n<\/p>\n
\n Some of those suspected of involvement in the incident have fled the country, said Hebr, who did not disclose how many bodies were found.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The grave was exhumed and now the committee will continue to work with forensic authorities and examine the evidence,\" said Wael Ali Saeed, a member of the investigation committee.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ailafoon military camp, located southeast of the capital Khartoum, was used for training new conscripts under Bashir's rule.\n<\/p>\n
\n In 1998, a group of conscripts died as they attempted to escape the base for the Muslim Eid al-Adha holidays.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Sudanese government said at the time that around 55 young conscripts who fled the base drowned when their overloaded boat capsized in the Blue Nile.\n<\/p>\n
\n Opposition groups accused the regime of deliberately killing the conscripts and reported a death toll of more than 100.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Other investigations -\n<\/p>\n
\n Many Sudanese families reported that their sons went missing and their remains were never found.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bashir used conscripts in the civil war against rebels in the oil-rich south, which seceded in 2011.\n<\/p>\n
\n Following Bashir's ouster last year, the country has since August been led by a civilian-majority administration presiding over a three-year transitional period.\n<\/p>\n
\n Sudanese authorities have vowed to probe \"violations\" committed under Bashir as well as violence during last year's protests against his rule.\n<\/p>\n
\n Hebr also disclosed on Monday that an investigatory team is looking into the 1989 Islamist-backed military coup that brought Bashir to power.\n<\/p>\n
\n Other ongoing investigations include cases of corruption and violence against demonstrators during anti-government protests that took place from December 2018, he added.\n<\/p>\n
\n Doctors linked to Sudan's protest movement said at least 246 were killed and hundreds others wounded during the 2018-19 protests.\n<\/p>\n
\n Since his ouster, Bashir and many of his aides have been kept in Khartoum's Kober prison on multiple charges.\n<\/p>\n
\n In December, he was sentenced to two years detention in a correctional facility in an initial corruption case.\n<\/p>\n
\n The ex-president has for a decade been wanted by the Hague-based International Criminal Court, where he faces charges of genocide and war crimes committed in the war ravaged Darfur region of western Sudan.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Darfur conflict, which erupted in 2003 between African minority rebels and Bashir's forces, killed 300,000 people and displaced 2.5 million others.\n<\/p>\n
\n Last week, top militia leader Ali Kushayb, who was accused of atrocities in Darfur, handed himself over to the ICC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sudan's public prosecutor announced Monday the discovery of a mass grave containing conscripts allegedly killed after trying to flee a military camp in 1998 under ousted president Omar al-Bashir's regime. The grim discovery came as part of investigations into misdeeds committed under al-Bashir, who ruled the country with an iron fist before the army deposed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-44587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n