Gatherings marred by violence. A second protester was killed Thursday, January 6 in Sudan, during new demonstrations gathering thousands of people against the military power, announced the Central Committee of Physicians in Sudan.
“A second protester, who has not yet been identified, died after being shot in the pelvis by putschist forces” in Omdourman, on the outskirts of the capital Khartoum, said this independent association. Earlier, another protester had been killed by “a shot to the head by the putschist forces”, also in Omdourman, it was announced from the same source. A total of 59 people have died in the crackdown on protests since General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhane’s coup on October 25, 2021.
According to witnesses, the security forces also fired tear gas in Khartoum, the capital, against the crowd advancing towards the presidential palace and the army headquarters.
Despite a murderous repression, the Association of Sudanese professionals, spearhead of the revolt against the deposed dictator Omar El-Bashir in 2019 and against the military since the putsch of October 25, had called for new demonstrations to demand an entirely civil power.
Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, the civilian face of the country’s transition, resigned on Sunday, believing that the country’s various political forces were too “fragmented” to achieve a way out of the crisis.
General Burhane, who has extended his tenure at the head of the country by two years, still promises elections for July 2023. However, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Norway urged the military on Tuesday Sudanese not to unilaterally appoint a new head of government. That “would undermine credibility” transitional institutions “and would risk plunging the country into conflict”, they warned.