Tear gas fired at Sudan anti-coup protesters

Sudanese security forces fired tear gas in Khartoum on Sunday at thousands protesting for civilian rule and against a military coup that took place last year. 

Pro-democracy activists have upped calls for protests to restore a transition to civilian rule since the October 25 military takeover led by general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. 

The coup, one of several in Sudan’s post-independence history, derailed a power-sharing arrangement between the army and civilians that had been painstakingly negotiated after the 2019 ouster of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir.

Sunday’s demonstrations took place in the capital Khartoum, the neighbouring city of Omdurman, Gedaref state in the east, and the northern cities of Atbara and Dongola, according to witnesses. 

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Sudanese authorities warned protesters against heading towards the Khartoum city centre as security forces sealed off streets leading to the presidential palace. 

But protesters in the capital converged in large numbers as they headed towards the palace and police fired volleys of tear gas when they approached that destination, the correspondent said. 

In Omdurman, demonstrators were seen carrying the Sudanese flag and chanting “blood is the path to freedom”, while in Gedaref, protesters demanded the military “go back to the barracks”, according to witnesses.

At least 78 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in the crackdown on anti-coup protests, according to an independent group of medics, while authorities have also rounded up hundreds of pro-democracy activists.

‘Not the end’

The Sudanese Professionals Association, an umbrella group instrumental in organising the anti-Bashir protests and latterly the anti-coup rallies, said Sunday’s demonstrations were “not the end”.  

“We will not leave the streets until the fall of the coup regime, achieving a democratic state, and holding to account all the murderers and those who committed crimes against the people,” it said in a statement on Saturday. 

The United Nations, which has recently launched talks between Sudanese factions in a bid to resolve the post-coup crisis, has warned of violence against protesters. 

“Tomorrow we will see another day of protest,” the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan, or UNITAMS, said on Twitter on Saturday. 

“Peaceful assembly and freedom of expression are human rights that must be protected,” it added, urging “authorities to allow tomorrow’s demonstrations to pass without violence”. 

Last week, the US Bureau of African Affairs said Sudan’s military leaders had committed to dialogue to resolve the crisis during a visit this month by senior US diplomats to Khartoum.

“Yet their actions – more violence against protesters, detention of civil society activists – tell a different story, and will have consequences,” the bureau said on Twitter.

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