Sudanese security forces again used tear gas in Khartoum today against anti-junta protesters, a day after the bloodiest mobilization since the October 25 military coup.
This morning, after the telephone communications were restored after they were interrupted yesterday by the authorities, the security forces tried again to disperse the dozens of protesters who remained at the roadblocks in the northern part of the Sudanese capital.
At least 11 people, including a woman, were killed by live ammunition used by the military , according to a pro-democracy doctors’ union, which said security forces were targeting “the head, neck and chest”.
A total of 39 people have been killed since the coup, including three teenagers, and hundreds more have been injured.
This morning, US Undersecretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phi condemned “the violence against peaceful protesters.”
After more than three weeks of internet access being cut off in Sudan, the violent disconnection of 45 million Sudanese has also affected their participation in the protests. Tens of thousands of people took part in the demonstrations on October 30 and November 13, while yesterday several thousand took part in the demonstrations.
Opposite them, a similar number of security forces blocked the bridges connecting Khartoum with its suburbs and the boulevards commonly used by protesters in 2019 to express their opposition to dictator Omar al-Bashir and now to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, of the coup.
Today they were again developed and were trying to destroy the roadblocks in northern Khartoum, said an eyewitness.
“Severe repression”
Yesterday, Soha, a 42-year-old protester, denounced the “severe repression” by the constant use of “tear gas and cluster bombs”.
In the country where more than 250 protesters were killed during the 2019 uprising that led to the fall of al-Bashir, an organization that had led the mobilizations at the time, the Sudanese Union of Professionals, yesterday denounced “crimes against humanity”.
For this movement, Wednesday’s “massacre” merely reinforces the slogans of “neither negotiations, nor cooperation, nor compromise” with the military. Protesters have been shouting in the streets of Sudan since October 25, despite hundreds of arrests of activists, journalists and even passers-by.
However, last night the doctors’ union accused the security forces of chasing the protesters to the hospitals and of throwing tear gas against the wounded and ambulances.
On October 25, General Burhan violently ended the gradual transition of power in Sudan, ousted all politicians from power, and ended cooperation between politicians and the military.
With no political solution on the horizon, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said he was ready to support the new Sudan, “if the army puts the (transition) train back on track.”
American mediation
In recent days in Khartoum, Phi has been mediating between ousted Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdock, who is under house arrest, and General Burhan to restart the democratic transition.
But the army chief does not seem willing to back down: he recently appointed himself head of the country’s most important institution, the Sovereignty Council. He also reinstated all members of the army who are or are positive towards him and replaced four members of the Council who were in favor of the transfer of power to politicians, with others.
At a time when the military is delaying the appointment of new authorities, something they have been promising to do for days, Phi is calling for Hamdock to return to the prime minister’s office, while some remaining ministers say they are the only “legitimate” cabinet and refuse to do so. negotiate with the army.
General Burhan still promises that elections will be held in 2023 and assures that he acted to “correct the course of the revolution”.
