KHARTOUM: Thousands of Sudan’s pro-democracy protesters demonstrated outside the presidential palace in Khartoum on Sunday and fired tear gas, deployed armed forces and shut down telecommunications.
They demonstrated against the 25 October coup launched by military leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, chanting “power to the people” and demanding “the return of the army to the barracks”.
Like previous demonstrations that have become routine since the coup, authorities have erected roadblocks, with shipping containers blocking the Nile bridges between the capital and outlying areas.
Internet and cell phones had not worked since morning and security forces were watching passersby with heavy machine guns mounted on armored vehicles.
But according to medical sources, thousands of Sudanese came out to demonstrate “in memory of the martyrs”, with at least 54 protesters killed in street violence since the coup.
Web monitoring group Netblox said mobile Internet services had been cut since the middle of the morning ahead of the planned protests earlier in the year.
Activists use the Internet to organize demonstrations and broadcast live footage of rallies.
Sudan, with a long history of military coups, has gone through a delicate journey toward civilian rule since the 2019 ouster of autocrat Omar al-Bashir following massive popular protests.
But the country has plunged into turmoil since Burhan – Sudan’s de facto leader after Bashir was ousted – launched his own coup and detained Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok.
Hamdok was reinstated on 21 November, but mass protests continued as protesters did not trust veteran General Burhan and his promises to guide the country towards full democracy.
Activists have continued a more than two-month-long campaign of street demonstrations against the military takeover, despite at least 54 people killed and hundreds injured, according to a group of pro-democracy doctors.
The rallies have been repeatedly disrupted by security forces firing tear gas shells as well as lathi-charge by the police.
On Thursday, six people were shot dead in Khartoum as security forces cracked down on mass rallies, with thousands taking to the streets chanting “no military rule”.
Burhan insisted that the army’s move was “not a coup” but a push to “correct the course of the transition”. On Friday a close adviser warned that the “demonstration is just a waste of energy and time” that would yield “no political solution”.
Activists say 2022 will be “the year of the continuation of the resistance” in posts on social media.
They demand justice for the more than 250 people killed since the coup as well as those killed during the mass protests that began in 2019 and pave the way for the toppling of Bashir.
Activists condemned sexual assault during the December 19 protests, in which the United Nations said at least 13 women and girls were victims of rape or gang rape.
The European Union and the United States issued a joint statement condemning the use of sexual violence “as a weapon to drive women away from demonstrations and to silence their voices.”
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the highest level for a decade, more than 14 million people, one in three Sudanese, will need humanitarian aid next year.
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