(Khartoum) Tens of thousands of demonstrators hostile to the military power again came under fire from tear gas canisters on Saturday in Sudan, where the authorities cut off communications after two months of putsch and a crackdown that left 48 people dead.
The crowd, arriving at the gates of the presidential palace in Khartoum where the transitional authorities headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, author of the October 25 coup are located, dispersed in the early evening under police charges.
An AFP journalist saw the wounded evacuated by protesters, while the pro-democracy doctors’ union, which has identified victims of the crackdown since 2018, reported that security forces had fired tear gas canisters into hospitals, attacking doctors as well as the wounded.
The most violent clashes took place near the bridges connecting its suburbs to Khartoum, blocked by the security forces whose cranes had deposited containers across the structures at dawn.
Looting and violence took place near the former UN logistics base of El Fasher, transferred to local authorities on Tuesday, according to a UN statement condemning the facts.
“This new incident and the damage is a tragedy for Sudanese communities who benefited from large amounts of equipment and supplies donated by the United Nations for civilian use,” said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the secretary. general.
FRANCE-PRESS AGENCY PHOTO
Demonstration in the Sahafa district of Khartoum
Staff of the former peacekeeping mission in Darfur, Unamid, remains and “its security now remains a primary concern,” said the UN, knowing that it must be ensured by the Sudanese authorities.
Early in the morning, mobile internet and telephone communications were cut off.
Despite this imposed isolation which raised fears of a new outburst of violence, they were again tens of thousands to demonstrate under a swarm of Sudanese flags and the ululations of demonstrators.
Processions marched in Khartoum, in its suburbs, but also in Madani, 150 kilometers south of the capital, Atbara (north) and Port Sudan (east), according to witnesses.
“Choose our Sudan”
“We will not stop demonstrating until we have a civilian government, the people are in the streets to say that it is they who decide”, insists a young demonstrator.
Not far from there, also on the outskirts of the presidential palace, Othmane Moustafa, 31, says he wants “more than to release the soldiers”. “We want to choose our Sudan: a Sudan that looks like us, that responds to our demands and gives rights to all equitably,” he explains.
Less than a week ago, on the third anniversary of the launch of the “revolution” of 2018 which forced the army to end 30 years of the military-Islamist dictatorship of Omar al-Bashir, supporters of a civil power had shown that they could still mobilize.
That day, the security forces fired live ammunition, raining tear gas canisters on the hundreds of thousands of those who took to the streets and even resorted, according to the UN, to a weapon already used in Darfur in war: rape.
On Saturday, the authorities also used another major tool: as during nearly a month after the putsch, they cut the Sudanese off from the world.
“Freedom of expression is a fundamental right and that includes full access to the internet”, has already protested the UN envoy, Volker Perthes, recalling that “no one should be arrested for having intended to demonstrate ”, while activists have reported raids since Friday evening in their ranks.
Next meeting on the 30th
Apparently, after his putsch denounced by the whole world or almost, General Burhane restored civilian Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, but Sudan still has no government, a sine qua non for the resumption of international aid, vital for this country, one of the poorest in the world.
Mr. Hamdok has returned to his post by agreeing to recognize the post-putsch state of affairs, and therefore the extension of General Burhane’s mandate at the head of the country for two years.
The latter promises the first free elections for decades in July 2023, without convincing the supporters of a solely civilian power in the country, under the rule of the army almost without interruption in 65 years of independence.
They have already announced that they will demonstrate again on December 30, when Sudan is stuck in political stagnation and inflation at over 300%.