Sudanese security forces killed two protesters on Sunday, medics said, as thousands braved tear gas, a heavy troop deployment and a telecommunications blackout to demand a civilian government.
Demonstrators lambasted an October 25 coup by military leader General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, shouting “power to the people” and demanding the military return to barracks, at protests near the presidential palace in the capital Khartoum and in its twin city Omdurman.
As with previous demonstrations, which have become regular since the coup, the authorities erected roadblocks, with shipping containers blocking Nile River bridges between the capital and outlying areas.
But thousands nonetheless came out to demonstrate “in memory of the martyrs,” with at least 56 protesters killed since the coup, according to medics.
In the latest deaths, the pro-democracy Doctors’ Committee said one protester was shot in the chest and a second suffered a “severe head wound” at the hands of security forces in Omdurman on Sunday.
Young men on motorcycles were seen ferrying wounded protesters to hospitals as security forces blocked ambulances from reaching them. Web monitoring group NetBlocks said mobile Internet services were cut from mid-morning ahead of the planned protests, the first of the year.
Activists use the Internet for organizing demonstrations and broadcasting live footage of the rallies. Sudan, with a long history of military coups, had been undergoing a fragile journey toward civilian rule since the 2019 ouster of autocrat Omar Al-Bashir following mass popular protests. Activists have kept up a more than two-month-long campaign of street demonstrations against the army’s takeover.–AFP
