Activists held as military tightens its grip on Sudan

Sudan’s military pressed ahead with a campaign of arrests and sackings of officials on Thursday.

Following the orders of Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, they rounded up activists, fired ambassadors in western capitals and forced employees of the official news agency out of their offices.

The international community responded with renewed calls for the return of the transition to democratic rule, the release of politicians and a suspension of aid.

The demands were led by the UN Security Council, which expressed “solidarity” with the Sudanese people and said it was ready “to support efforts to realise Sudan’s democratic transition” and an “inclusive, peaceful, stable, democratic and prosperous future”.

The takeover halted a move to democratic rule two-and-a-half years after a popular uprising led the military to oust dictator Omar Al Bashir.

The generals and the prodemocracy alliance behind the uprising signed a powersharing deal under which a military-civilian government was created in August 2019.

Gen Al Burhan dissolved the civilian-led government, detaining Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok on Monday, before placing him under house arrest. His Cabinet ministers are being held, along with civilian members of the Sovereign Council the general had chaired since 2019.

He also declared a state of emergency and pledged to appoint a government of technocrats to run Sudan under the military’s control until elections in July 2023.

Residents of Sudan’s capital Khartoum said security forces attacked protesters with whips and sticks as they searched pedestrians and cars, making several arrests, on Thursday.

In the Khartoum district of Burri, hundreds of protesters fought street battles with security forces on Wednesday night.

Young people threw rocks at soldiers, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.

There were clashes in the north of the capital, as security forces tried to dismantle street barricades set up by protesters.

Thousands gathered outside the military headquarters, chanting “Freedom, peace and justice” – the main slogan of the anti-Al Bashir uprising – and “Burhan, give it up”.

Witnesses said shots and tear gas were fired and soldiers beat protesters with sticks.

“There was a stampede as the bullets and tear gas shells rained down on us,” said Tareq Ali, a father of three. “We were peacefully listening to protest leaders speaking, not trying to storm the headquarters, when they attacked us.”

His account was confirmed by another protester, Mosaab Shereef, from the Khartoum Nile island of Tuti.

“Many of us were injured from the bullets and the tear gas,” he said. “People were also injured in the stampede.”

Khartoum resident Ayman Kamoon, 34, said Mohammed Anwara, 19, a student, was shot in the back by security forces and died in hospital.

A doctors’ association linked to the pro-democracy movement said eight people were killed in the first two days of the takeover.

A video widely shared on social media showed a young man lying motionless on the street in a pool of blood. Voices can be heard in the video saying he was shot by soldiers.

Protests spread to the cities of Atbara, north of Khartoum, Port Sudan in the east on the Red Sea and Wad Madani, south of the capital. However, the military’s blocking of the internet since Monday appears to have hampered efforts to co-ordinate street protests.

The Association of Professionals’ Unions, which was at the forefront of the 2018-2019 uprising, called for a “march of millions” on Saturday.

Meanwhile, officials who opposed the military, including Sudan’s ambassadors to Switzerland, the US, China and France, were sacked.

The head of the Civil Aviation authority, Ibrahim Adlan, was fired hours after he announced that Khartoum international airport had reopened after a three-day closure. The head of state television was also sacked.

Forces of Freedom and Change, the alliance that served as a power base for Mr Hamdok’s government, called a general strike. Pilots of the national airline, Sudan Airways, stopped work, along with teachers, doctors, pharmacists and Central Bank employees.