Sudan protester killed during anti-coup demonstration

Sudanese security forces on Thursday shot dead a protester during renewed demonstrations against last year’s military coup led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, pro-democracy medics said.

The northeast African country has been gripped by unrest since Gen. Al-Burhan seized power on Oct.25, 2021. He arrested the civilian leaders with whom he had agreed to share power in 2019 after mass protests led to the ouster of long-time autocrat Omar Bashir. The demonstrator was shot in the capital’s twin city of Omdurman, the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors said, bringing the total death toll from a crackdown on near-weekly anti-coup demonstrations to 120.

The protester, who was not named, died of wounds sustained after he was “hit in the abdomen by a bullet fired by security forces,” the committee said.

It was the first death since a security forces’ vehicle ran over

a protester, medics said earlier, during demonstrations last month marking a year since the putsch. Security forces also fired tear gas and stun grenades at protesters Thursday, an AFP journalist said. Already one of the world’s poorest countries, Sudan plunged into a worsening economic crisis since the coup.

Demonstrators have for more than a year called on the military to “return to the barracks,” including during protests last week, while the UN urged restraint.

Efforts by the UN mission in Sudan to mediate a way out of the crisis between the country’s civilian and military leaders have so far failed to yield results.

But the two sides have welcomed a transitional constitution developed by the Sudanese Bar Association as a basis for a lasting agreement.

The man civilian bloc, the Forces for Freedom and Change, last week said it had approved a two-phase political process based on the Bar Association’s initiative, which would see the establishment of a civilian government.

Gen. Al-Burhan had earlier said the military was presented with a “document” on the political process, adding: “We noted down observations to preserve the army’s dignity, unity and independence.”