(Khartoum) A protester was killed on Sunday in Sudan by security forces, doctors said, during new rallies of thousands against the ruling army, 11 weeks after the military coup.
These new demonstrations repressed by the power come on the eve of the launch by the UN of talks with civilians and soldiers, supposed to get the country out of the crisis.
They ended at nightfall.
On October 25, the coup d’etat by army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane ended the transition to fully civilian rule in Sudan, nearly two years after the fall of Omar el- Bashir, dictator who had been in power for three decades.
Thousands of demonstrators gathered again on Sunday in the capital to protest the coup, according to witnesses.
Others also went out in the streets of Omdourman and Bahri, the northwestern and northern suburbs of Khartoum, as well as in Wad Madani, south of the capital, according to the same sources.
Doctors demonstrate
Security forces attempted to disperse protesters with tear gas as they marched towards the presidential palace in Khartoum, as they had done in other anti-coup rallies.
The main streets around the capital had been blocked by the police to prevent demonstrators from gathering there as well as in front of the army headquarters, the epicenter of the protest movement against Bashir.
“No, no to the military regime,” chanted the demonstrators, waving Sudanese flags.
A 26-year-old protester was killed after being hit in the neck by a tear gas canister launched by security forces, the Sudanese Medical Committee, close to the protest movement, said in a statement.
Since the October 25 putsch, the repression of demonstrations by the security forces has left at least 62 dead, according to these doctors.
FRANCE-PRESS AGENCY PHOTO
Thousands of demonstrators gathered again on Sunday in the capital to protest the coup, according to witnesses.
A teenager died Sunday from gunshot wounds to the neck suffered during protests Thursday, according to the same source.
Authorities have consistently denied resorting to bullets against protesters and said many members of the security forces were injured in clashes with protesters.
“We don’t want less than a completely civilian government,” said Ammar Hamed, 27, a protester in Khartoum.
Doctors in white coats were seen on Sunday joining rallies to protest security forces storming hospitals and medical facilities in previous protests.
The Sudanese Central Medical Committee on Saturday said medics would join the marches and deliver a memorandum to UN officials denouncing recent “assaults by coup forces” against medical facilities.
Last week, the prime minister and civilian face of the transition, Abdallah Hamdok, resigned after a deadly day of protests.
He was reinstated in his post on November 21 after being sacked with his government during the coup.
Since last week, the military have been the only ones in charge. General Burhane, who has extended his tenure as head of the country by two years, promises elections for July 2023.
But its promises are far from calming the streets.
UN talks
On Saturday, the UN envoy to Sudan Volker Perthes announced that he would organize talks with “all key civil and military actors” to try to resolve the crisis.
“It is time to put an end to the violence and to enter into a constructive process,” he said of these discussions, which are to be officially launched on Monday at a press conference.
The Forces for Freedom and Change, spearheading the revolt that led to Bashir’s ouster in 2019, said they had not received “any details” from the UN on these talks.
The Sudanese Professionals Association, which has also been instrumental in the anti-Bashir protests, said on Sunday that it “completely rejects” such talks.
“The way to resolve the Sudanese crisis begins with the complete overthrow of the putschist military council,” the Association said in a statement.