Sudan – Sudanese people shut down stores and blocked streets with burning tyres and rocks on Tuesday, staging enraged protests against one of the country’s bloodiest days since a coup d’état halted the country’s democratic transition.
In Sudan, civilian anti-coup mobilization may be taking a new turn. Responding to a call from the influential civilian group Forces for Freedom and Change to begin two days of civil disobedience on Tuesday, protestors barricaded their streets. A series of modest signs plastered on the closed outlets at Khartoum’s enormous Sajane construction supplies market read, “Shop closed for mourning.”
Thousands marched against the army’s takeover on October 25, and security forces opened fire, killing at least seven civilians. One of the businessmen, Othman el-Sherif, was among those killed. The demonstrations come as the United States intensifies its pressure on Sudan in an attempt to end the country’s months-long crisis, with top US diplomats expected to arrive in the capital, Khartoum, for talks.
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“We walked to the streets to peacefully voice our views, but were met with live gunshots, tear gas, and sound grenades by military troops. Many demonstrators have been arrested, and more than ten people have been killed, with more injured and in serious condition. All Sudanese people, as well as all free revolutionaries, are urged to barricade all streets and declare civil disobedience until the putschists fall, “a protestor named Tarek said. He successfully barricaded the street in his neighborhood, but witnesses claim that police shot tear gas at hundreds of people erecting roadblocks in other parts of east Khartoum.
The use of live ammunition was denounced by the UN special representative after the killings on Monday. However, the most recent such appeals have had no effect on the growing death toll. A total of 71 people have been killed as a result of the crackdown. Since the coup led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan over three months ago, tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets on a regular basis.
Following the overthrow of despot Omar al-Bashir in April 2019, the military power grab undermined a fragile transition to a civilian administration, with Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok leaving earlier this month, warning Sudan was at a “dangerous crossroads threatening its very survival.”
