June 3 Security Database

June 3 Security Database

When Sudan’s former President of 30 years was toppled, the Sudanese people expected a radical change and complete eradication of the security apparatus that abused the nation and its resources. Except Rapid Support Forces, formerly known as the Janjaweed militias, continued to be at the helm of decision making, and ultimately, jeopardising lives.

Many civil society organisations, including the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors, called for nationwide protests on June 3rd to demand a complete and drastic change of ruling in Sudan. They were met with violence: tear gas and gunfire, killing more than 100 and injuring hundreds others.

Some of the violence that happened that day was caught on cameras. The Sudanese Archive is collecting, archiving and verifying documentation of security forces, mainly Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Riot Control Police, attacking, intimidating and rounding up protesters at the June 3rd sit-in. The collection came to existence with the help of committed Sudanese researchers, activists and partners of the Sudanese Archive.

Click here to see the database

This June 3 Security dataset is the first section of an ongoing project to document the role security forces played in injuring and killing civilian protesters on June 3, 2019. We continue to gather content and verify it, and will launch an updated version in the fall of 2021.

These videos include

• Intimidation, severe beating and entrapment of protesters and medical staff
• Violent crackdown on participants at and around the sit-in
• Attacking hospital staff at more than one medical facility
• Premeditated positioning of dozens of RSF cars equipped with heavy machinery near and at the sit-in
• Casualties laying within and carried across the sit-in location to medical tents and nearby hospitals

Violence against protesters

Not only were protesters attacked and arbitrarily detained, but Sudanese Archive identified numerous videos in which security forces had access to weapons such as rifles and machine guns.

Additionally, Sudan’s Sovereignty Council came short on ensuring accountability trying those proven to have committed crimes against humanity from RSF and other government security forces.

By examining videos and photos from that day, Sudanese Archive documented more than 40 incidents in over twenty locations across and near the sit-in, and imagery of the use of batons and sticks, as well as the presence of rifles and anti-aircraft weapons. This data set includes only documentation from a short period of time over the course of the early morning of June 3rd. We are expanding the dataset to include days prior and subsequent to the June 3 violence.

International and regional bodies condemned the excessive violence committed and briefly froze Sudan’s membership at the African Union (AU) but without repercussions or proper vetting into what happened at the sit-in from the international community.

Using the Database

Despite the challenge of documentation being frequently lost from social media platforms due to targeted reporting or its graphic content, Sudanese Archive managed to preserve and sort through hundreds of videos and pictures from June 3. Using those verified observations, we have made a searchable dataset of verified incidents, such as violence or security presence. These verified incidents could ideally be used by non-governmental organisations, human rights professionals and lawyers to help with their advocacy work and ensure accountability.

Click here to see the database

Methodology

The Sudanese Archive logs incidents of violence, protests and other human rights-related occurrences on a daily basis, gathering links to publicly available content and collecting content sent to us from sources across the country. The Sudanese Archive investigative team searched through our existing database to identify documentation of security presence and violence on June 3 in and around the Khartoum sit-in. Relevant videos were located and verified using the Syrian Archive Digital Evidence Workflow and metadata was extracted and standardised using an automated process and metadata scheme.

For each incident identified, we extracted and analysed documentation, verifying the videos and tagging each video and incident with metadata to transform the digital content to useful and searchable information with querying capacities. We designed a Tagging Guide to define each metadata tag and its possible responses, to ensure consistency in our methods. Read more about our tagging methods here. To ensure consistency of locations and names, we followed this guide and used Google Maps names where there were questions about possible naming and spelling norms. We also made decisions about location limits, such as defining neighbourhoods and junctions. For example, our data will reference the Hay al Matar neighbourhood, but doesn’t include Hay al Gamma.

View our Tagging Guide here.

All content used in the building of this collection is open source and publicly derived, processed and published. The database places incidents on a map and allows data to be searched by incidents, keywords, and related video content.

This is the first step of a long process to document and make accessible incidents relating to security presence and human rights violations across Sudan during the protest crackdowns.

About Sudanese Archive

The Sudanese Archive is a pool of investigative journalists, human rights activists and dedicated volunteers in Sudan and the diaspora, whose main goal is documenting human rights violations and verifying what Sudanese security forces have committed over the course of more than 24 months, from the massacre on Khartoum to the atrocities that take place in the Darfur region to this day.

The Sudanese Archive team with its researchers, technologists and journalists are committed to aid lawyers, fellow journalists and stakeholders in prosecuting officials who have long violated human rights and fostered complacency.

Video submission

The Sudanese Archive is always looking to ensure the comprehensiveness and accuracy of a publicly available open-source database of all human rights violations on June 3rd. If there is a video or piece of information that is not included in our database, please email info@sudanesearchive.org to inquire as to how to send it securely or reach us at +49 178 3161589 on WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram.

Errors, corrections and feedback

The Sudanese Archive aims for complete transparency and accuracy in documenting all incidents. But the team is also aware that open data of certain events is not complete and are occasionally limited. Our database is hence maintained and presented to the best of our knowledge. If you have information about a certain incident, an error or a representation, please reach out to us at info@sudanesearchive.org or reach us at +49 178 3161589 on WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram.

Acknowledgements

The videos in this database have been collected by groups and individuals living or working in Sudan. This collection would not be possible without those documenting and reporting on violence occurring at great risk to themselves.