Sudan security forces kill five anti-coup protesters, medics say
Sudanese security forces have killed five anti-coup protesters and wounded dozens others during a crackdown on renewed pro-democracy protests, according to an independent union of medics.
The Sudan Doctors Committee said on Saturday four people were killed by gunshots and one from a tear gas canister in the capital, Khartoum, and its twin city of Omdurman, adding that many others were wounded as demonstrators were “facing excessive repression using all forms of force, including live bullets”.
It said that an 18-year-old and a 35-year-old were among those killed “by bullets of the putschist military council”.
Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of the capital and elsewhere to protest against last month’s coup and the creation of a new governing council by the head of the army this week that excluded any representatives from the civilian Forces of Freedom and Change coalition.
General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Thursday reappointed himself head of the Sovereign Council, while Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the leader of the feared paramilitary Rapid Support Forces who is also known as Hemeti, kept his post as deputy. The duo had been due to hand over the body’s leadership to civilians in the coming months.
The developments have angered the pro-democracy alliance and frustrated Western countries that have urged the military to reverse its coup.
“Protests are continuing, more and more people are joining the protests, they are chanting that they don’t want the military rule,” said Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from the protests in Khartoum.
He added that despite the heavy security presence, protesters seemed determined “to remain in the streets to show their resistance against military rule”.
The Sudanese military seized power on October 25, dissolving the transitional government and detaining dozens of officials and politicians, including Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok who remains under house arrest. The takeover upended the country’s fragile planned transition to democratic rule, more than two years after a popular uprising forced the removal of longtime leader Omar al-Bashir.
Security forces on Saturday closed bridge between central Khartoum, Omdurman and Khartoum North to vehicles and pedestrians, laying barbed wire to block access. Roads to strategic sites were also shut.
As protesters began to gather in the early afternoon around the capital, security forces moved quickly to try to disperse them, firing tear gas and chasing demonstrators down side streets to try to prevent them reaching central meeting points.
“People were surprised that they fired the tear gas so early,” said one protester in Omdurman.
Protesters “retreated into the neighbourhood and barricaded the streets and now they’re coming back to the main road”.
Saturday’s protests were called by the Sudanese Professionals’ Association (SPA) and the Resistance Committees. Both groups have opposed the return to the power-sharing deal that established the deposed transitional government in August 2019. They demand the handover of the government to civilians to lead the transition to democracy, with other political parties and movements joining the call.