Thousands of Sudanese protesters rallied Saturday two months after a military coup, demanding soldiers “go back to the barracks” and calling for a transition to civilian rule. Waving flags, beating drums, dancing and chanting, crowds marched on the streets of Khartoum despite a heavy deployment of security forces — who later fired tear gas to break them up.
Officers had earlier blocked bridges connecting the capital to suburbs, cut phone lines and restricted the internet ahead of the planned protests.
At least 48 people have died in crackdowns during weeks of demonstrations, according to the independent Doctors’ Committee, and Khartoum’s state governor has warned that security forces “will deal with those who break the law and create chaos”.
Demonstrators converged on the presidential palace in Khartoum, the headquarters of the military government in control since General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan seized power on October 25. The move alienated many of Hamdok’s pro-democracy supporters, who dismissed it as providing a cloak of legitimacy for Burhan’s coup. Protesters online had encouraged supporters with slogans, including demanding “no negotiations” with the army.
As well as rallies in Khartoum and its suburbs, protesters also marched on the streets of Wad Madani, a city around 150 kilometres (more than 90 miles) to the south, witnesses said. Others reported demonstrations at Atbara in the north and Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast.
Source: IOL
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