Sudanese security forces fired tear gas on Sunday at thousands of protesters in Khartoum and other towns in Sudan in new rallies against the ruling army, eleven weeks after the military coup.
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.
A 26-year-old young man died after receiving “a tear gas canister on the neck” thrown by the security forces while demonstrating against the putsch, the Sudanese Medical Committee said in a statement. This death brings the death toll among demonstrators to 62 since October 25.
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.
Security forces attempted to disperse protesters with tear gas in central Khartoum and Bahri, as they had done in other anti-coup rallies.
“No, no to the military regime,” chanted the demonstrators, waving Sudanese flags.
Since the October 25 putsch, the repression of demonstrations by the security forces has left at least 61 dead, according to a latest report from doctors linked to the protest movement. A teenager died Sunday from gunshot wounds to the neck suffered during protests Thursday, according to the same source.
Authorities have consistently denied using live ammunition against protests and said many members of the security forces were injured in clashes with protesters.
Doctors demonstrate
“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, affiliated with the protest movement, 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 (FLC), the spearhead of 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.