Thread by @BBCAfrica

THREAD

On June 3, 2019, there was a massacre on the streets of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.

This is the story of that massacre, told through the phone cameras of those who kept filming, even as they came under live fire.

#BBCAfricaEye

#BBCAfricaEye has analysed more than 300 videos from Khartoum on 3 June.

Using these videos, we can bring you a shocking, street-level view of the violence that was inflicted on protesters that morning and the 1st direct testimony from men who say they took part in this attack.

A quick note on the background to these events:

In April, Sudan's former President Omar al-Bashir was toppled by months of mass demonstrations.

Since then, protesters had been staging a peaceful, round-the-clock sit-in along Buri road, close to military HQ.

The sit-in had a serious purpose: to press for civilian rule and democratic elections.

But it also became a celebration of new-found freedoms and a festival of Sudanese culture.

Soldiers watched over the demonstrators, and some even mingled with the crowds.

June 3rd was the last day of Ramadan. Protesters were looking forward to celebrating Eid with their families.

But in the early hours of that morning, the power went out and rumours began to spread from phone to phone.

At first light, protesters were at makeshift barricades, facing the massed ranks of the police and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The RSF are a paramilitary group under the command of Sudan's governing council. They are known and feared as the most ruthless troops in Sudan.

At exactly 5am, at exactly this location, the attack began.

goo.gl/maps/n8b8uqqer…

At least 3 protesters were live-streaming the first hour of the massacre.

The first livestreamer filmed the start of the attack - and then ran for his life, heading south along Imam al Mahdi street.

Geolocation: goo.gl/maps/XmNSJcsNA…

A second livestream shows that protesters regrouped here - and then advanced, unarmed, along the train tracks towards the RSF.

The footage captures a young man in a pink shirt, also filming from a phone. This is the same man who recorded the start of the attack.

If we jump back to the view from his phone, it takes us up to this embankment in front of the Blue Nile Bridge.

Geo: goo.gl/maps/tZmCsZDy5…

A third livestreamer captured this shot of the first two men, still filming from their phones, and then takes the action forward at street level

Geolocation: goo.gl/maps/ZMQx4QapN…

The footage shows the RSF gathered in front of the bridge

Moments later, at 05.12, it records the first sustained gunfire of the attack.

By now our first livestreamer was down on the street. His phone recorded the panic as demonstrators ran for their lives.

Protesters took what little cover they could find.

As the RSF reached the sit-in on Buri Road, they were still firing live ammunition.

Some split off from the crowds, only to find themselves cornered and beaten by the RSF or the police.

These people tried to take shelter inside military HQ – but the gates were closed, and they came under live fire.

Geolocated: goo.gl/maps/RfQXVugWj…

Three separate eye-witnesses told the BBC that the regular army stood aside as the RSF pursued protesters, many of them injured, east along Buri road and into the outlying quarters of Khartoum.

Women were not spared.

Medical staff came under attack, some in the ground of their own hospitals.

This man, a doctor, was shot as he treated casualties.

Among the wounded was our first livestreamer – the man in the pink shirt, seen here bleeding from a gunshot wound to the chest.

Hospitals were overrun with the injured and the dead.

But some had no hospitals at all.

This young man – one source told us that he was just 18 – bled from a bullet wound to the head on the floor of a courtyard. His friends could do nothing but pray.

An hour after the attack began, this site – the meeting ground of Sudan’s revolutionaries, and the centre of its hopes for peace and democracy – was in flames.

In the days after the attack, survivors began to tell their stories.

This young man claimed that the RSF had dumped dead bodies in the Nile.

And he was not the only one to make these claims.

These testimonies are shocking enough.

But it didn’t take long for harder, more gruesome evidence of these crimes to emerge: bodies, pulled from the river, some with concrete blocks still tied to their feet.

The video was filmed here > goo.gl/maps/uJp8KMn6E…

The survivors were in no doubt about who was responsible for this massacre.

Hemeti - real name Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo - is the leader of the RSF, the paramilitary force that carried out this attack.

Officially, he is second in command of Sudan's military council. But many consider him to be the real source of power in Sudan since the fall of Mr Bashir.

Facing international condemnation, Hemeti has denied responsibility for the killings of June 3rd, blaming the violence on rogue elements and imposters.

But BBC Africa Eye has spoken with two men who say they are serving officers in Hemeti’s RSF.

We cannot independently verify these claims, but both men say that the attack was planned in advance – and that the order to break the sit-in came from the top.

We put these allegations to Hemeti and the Transitional Military Council. At the time of publication, we had received no reply.

If Hemeti’s strategy was to frighten protesters into staying off the streets, it has failed.

Less than a month after the massacre, thousands of Sudanese were back on the streets of Khartoum, and in cities all over the country.

People around the world expressed their solidarity with Sudan’s struggle for peace and democracy.

#SudanUprising
#SudanMassacre

In July, Sudan’s military rulers agreed to set up a new governing council, in which they will share power with civilian representatives of the protest movement.

They pledged to work towards democratic elections three years from now.

Our first live streamer – the man in the pink shirt – survived his injuries. We found this clip of him, wounded but defiant.

The protesters who marched with him are still filming from their phones.

These images cannot stop the bullets.

But they can make it impossible for Sudan’s military rulers to hide any further bloodshed from the eyes of the world.

You can watch the full investigation on @youtube here >

All #BBCAfricaEye films can be found on the BBC website: bbc.co.uk/africaeye

#NothingStaysHiddenForever

This investigation was led by @bendobrown & produced by @danielsilas, @SVanhooymissen, @effisfor. Investigators @bertram_hill1 @Moniem_suleiman @john_marquee @MukamiPurity @moehash1@nahlaelnemr @Yaolri. News producers @KelvinNews & @attwoodch. #BBCAfricaEye editor @marcperky.

Our thanks to all those who provided these images at such great risk to themselves.

For the #OSINT community and journalists interested in how this investigation was done, we’ll put together a behind-the-scenes thread on our methodology and post it below. Please give us another few days to get to this.