Sudanese protesters against the coup on Sunday set up barricades in the streets of Khartoum the day after a bloody crackdown on protests. Tens of thousands of people across the country marched on Saturday against the October 25 coup led by el general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who dissolved the government, declared a state of emergency and detained civilian leaders.
At least three people were shot dead and more than 100 wounded during the demonstrations on Saturday. The number of victims of police repression amounts to at least 12 dead and about 300 injured since the protests began, according to a pro-democracy doctors union, which announced the death of two other protesters this Sunday.
“No to the military government,” chanted protesters waving Sudanese flags as they marched through the capital and other cities, as forces fired tear gas to disperse them.
The African country was governed since August 2019 by a civil-military council under the orders of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, to achieve a democratic transition. Hamdok and other leaders have been detained or under house arrest since the coup.
The president of United States, Joe Biden, called the blow a “serious setback”, while the African Union suspended the country as a member for the “unconstitutional seizure” of power. The World Bank and the United States have frozen aid, a move that will hit hard for a country that is already mired in a serious economic crisis.
But Burhan, who became de facto leader after former President Omar al-Bashir was ousted in 2019 after huge youth-led protests, insists the military takeover “has not been a coup.” Instead, Burhan says he wants to “rectify the course of the Sudanese transition”.
Demonstrations on Saturday rocked several cities in Sudan, including those in the eastern states of Gedaref and Kassala, as well as in North Kordofan and the White Nile. On Sunday morning the protesters took to the streets again, using stones and tires to block the roads.
Commercial stores remain largely closed in the country’s capital Khartoum, where many government employees refuse to work as a sign of protest. Army and paramilitary soldiers were seen on the streets and set up random checkpoints searching bystanders and cars.
Telephone lines are intermittently out of service, while Internet access has been cut off since the military coup.
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