(Khartoum) Sudanese security forces fired tear gas canisters at several processions on Sunday and arrested dozens of demonstrators on the first day of a new campaign of civil disobedience against the army, alone in control since the October 25 coup.
Since the dissolution that day by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane of all the country’s institutions and the arrest of almost all the civilians with whom he shared power, the streets have come into resistance.
“No to military power”
After a mobilization launched on the day of the putsch which ran out of steam last week, unions and other organizations once again urged the Sudanese to civil disobedience on Sunday, the first day of the week in Sudan, and on Monday.
Hundreds of demonstrators marched in Atbara, in the north, shouting “No to military power”, while dozens of teachers converged on the education ministry in Khartoum for “a silent protest against the decisions of the government. General Burhane ”, explained to AFP Mohammed al-Amine, professor of geography.
“The police came and fired tear gas canisters at us while we were just standing there with our placards: ‘No to military rule’,” he added.
According to the teachers’ union, 87 demonstrators were arrested “without a warrant” and a teacher had her leg broken in the dispersal.
A few hours later, a procession of a few hundred demonstrators also came under tear gas canister fire, according to witnesses, this time in the turbulent neighborhood of al-Bourri, in the east of the capital.
“No negotiation”
Since October 25, soldiers arrested most of the civilian leaders, the list of detainees has continued to grow: politicians, activists active on social networks, young people posted on barricades, but also senior officials and even passers-by, all arrested without an arrest warrant.
From the night, demonstrators had blocked roads with bricks and cobblestones, while shops remained closed.
Because, from “general strike” to monster demonstrations, the Sudanese, who had forced the army to dismiss dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019, want to weigh while negotiations continue behind closed doors between soldiers, civilian leaders and local mediators or international to find a way out.
So far, however, negotiations have neither led to the formation of a new government, or to the return of the one brutally dismissed by General Burhane, nor even to the adoption of a clear position on whether or not to resume the government. democratic transition launched with the fall of Bashir.
For the pro-democracy organizations at the forefront of the anti-Bashir “revolution”, the line is clear: “No dialogue, no negotiation, no partnership” with the army, they claim in press releases sent by text, internet. being blocked for 14 days.
In 2019, high-ranking officers and pro-democracy civilians decided to manage the transition together, but many today consider such a partnership impossible.
International concern
Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, under house arrest, and his rare ministers at large continue to plead for a return to the pre-October 25, but the army, it wants a new government more inclined to safeguard its political and economic interests, estimate experts.
Negotiators from the Arab League, South Sudan or the UN are stepping up meetings with the two camps.
But their task is complicated: the UN representative in Sudan, Volker Perthes, was indignant on Thursday to see that civilian politicians who had come to meet him at his headquarters had been arrested by the army on his doorstep.
On Sunday, an Arab League delegation met with General Burhane, who continues the purges. After dismissing all the directors of public companies, he sacked all the directors of public banks on Sunday.
Four ministers have been released by the military, but others are still being held and General Burhane has hinted that they will be prosecuted.
The coup and the crackdown that killed 14 protesters – according to doctors – have already earned Sudan a series of international condemnations, its suspension from the African Union and massive cuts in international aid.
Arab countries seem to be divided. On Wednesday, more than a week after the putsch, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two countries close to the Sudanese military, called for the “immediate restoration” of civilian government, but Egypt, a big influential neighbor, still has not positioned itself.