Sudan security forces fire tear gas at anti-coup protesters
KHARTOUM: Street clashes again shook Sudan’s capital Thursday a day after security forces shot dead 15 protesters in the bloodiest day since the military’s October 25 takeover.
Police fired tear gas to disperse dozens of anti-coup protesters who had stayed on the streets of north Khartoum overnight, braving an intensifying crackdown that has drawn international condemnation, witnesses said.
Police tore down makeshift barricades the protesters had erected the previous day.
Top general Abdel Fattah alBurhan – Sudan’s de facto leader since the April 2019 ouster of longtime president Omar alBashir – detained the civilian leadership and declared a state of emergency on Oct 25.
The move upended Sudan’s fragile transition to full civilian rule, drawing international condemnation and a flurry of punitive measures and aid cuts.
“We condemn violence towards peaceful protesters and call for the respect and protection of human rights in Sudan,” the US State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs said on Twitter.
Burhan insists the military’s move “was not a coup” but a step to “rectify the course of the transition” to civilian rule.
Thousands took to the streets on Wednesday in Khartoum and other cities but were met by the deadliest crackdown since the coup.
At least 15 people were killed, raising the toll since the coup to 39.
Police said they had recorded only one death among protesters in north Khartoum. Another 30 had suffered breathing difficulties from tear gas inhalation.
They said they had fired no live rounds and used only “minimum force”, even as 89 officers were wounded, some of them critically.
The latest demonstrations were organised despite a neartotal shutdown of internet services and the disruption of telephone lines across Sudan.
By Thursday morning, phone lines had been restored but Internet services remained largely cut.
Last week, Burhan formed a new Sovereign Council, the highest transitional authority, with himself as chief and military figures and ex-rebel leaders keeping their posts.
He replaced members from the Forces for Freedom and Change, Sudan’s main civilian bloc, with little-known figures.
The FFC is umbrella alliance that spearheaded the protests which led to the ouster of president Omar al-Bashir in 2019.