Sudanese protest military rule again

CAIRO — Thousands of Sudanese took to the streets Monday in the capital of Khartoum and other cities in the latest protests against the October military coup and subsequent deal that reinstated Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.

Footage circulated on social media purportedly showed demonstrators marching in different locations in Khartoum and its sister city of Omdurman. There were also protests in Kassala, Sennar and Port Sudan.

Security forces fired tear gas to disperse protesters marching near the presidential palace in Khartoum, activist Nazim Sirag said.

He said they also used heavy tear gas to break up a one-day sit-in in Khartoum’s district of Bahri.

About a dozen protesters suffered light injuries from tear gas canisters, he said.

In past rounds of demonstrations, security forces used violence, including firing live ammunition, according to activists.

At least 44 protesters have been killed and hundreds wounded since the coup, according to the Sudan Doctors Committee.

The Sudanese military seized power Oct. 25, dissolving the transitional government and arresting dozens of officials and politicians.

The takeover upended a fragile planned transition to democratic rule more than two years after a popular uprising forced the removal of longtime autocrat Omar al- Bashir and his Islamist government.

Hamdok was reinstated last monthcq amid international pressure in a deal that calls for an independent technocratic Cabinet under military oversight.

The agreement included the release of government officials and politicians detained since the coup and the formation of a Cabinet led by Hamdok.

The deal, however, was rejected by the pro-democracy movement, which insists on handing over power to a civilian government to lead the transition.

The protests came under the slogan of: “No negotiations, no compromise, no power- sharing” with the military.

Monday’s protests were called by the Sudanese Professionals Association and the so- called Resistance Committees, which spearheaded the uprising against al-Bashir and then the military coup.

Among the protesters’ demands are the restructuring of the military under civilian oversight, purging officers loyal to al-Bashir and disbanding armed groups including the Rapid Support Forces.

“We will keep on using all peaceful means to reject and resist until the fall of the coup government and the return to the course of democratic transition,” said protester Dalia Mostafa while taking part in a march in Khartoum.