Sudan protesters tear down roadblocks, want army to resume talks

KHARTOUM: Hundreds of demonstrators worked to clear away bricks and debris, after military rulers demanded that roadblocks which have paralysed parts of Khartoum be dismantled before talks on a new transitional body can resume.

Key international players voiced alarm and urged an immediate resumption of negotiations, which the ruling military council on Wednesday suspended with the protesters for 72 hours.

The council, which said that security in the capital had deteriorated, froze talks that were due to finalise the make-up of a new body that would govern Sudan for a transitional period of three years.

The issue is the thorniest to have come up in ongoing talks on installing civilian rule after the generals took over following the ouster of autocratic president Omar al-Bashir last month.

But for the final talks to happen the military council chief, General Abdel Fattah alBurhan, demanded that protesters dismantle roadblocks, open bridges and railway lines connecting the capital and “stop provoking security forces”.

In the early hours of Friday, hundreds of demonstrators chanting revolutionary slogans tore down roadblocks on Nile Street, a key avenue, that had paralysed downtown Khartoum this week.

“We have removed the bricks... but if they do not respond to our demands then we will bring the bricks again,” protester Sumeya Abdrahman told AFP while demonstrators cleared the debris. — AFP