Mass grave found in Sudan

KHARTOUM: Sudan’s public prosecutor announced on Monday the discovery of a mass grave of conscripts killed in 1998 after trying to flee a military camp.

The committee tasked with investigating the killings at Ailafoon military camp “found the mass grave in the past four days after hearing witness accounts”, said public prosecutor Tagelsir al-Hebr, without giving details on the number of bodies found. “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.

The Ailafoon military camp, located southeast of the capital Khartoum, was used for training new conscripts under the rule of now-ousted president Omar al-Bashir. In 1998, a group of conscripts were killed as they attempted to escape the base for the Muslim Eidul Azha holidays. The Sudanese government said at the time that 55 young conscripts who fled the military base drowned when their overloaded boat capsized in the Blue Nile river.