Protesters flood streets, demand end of army rule
KHARTOUM, Sudan — Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in Sudan’s capital and elsewhere in the country Sunday to demand civilian rule nearly three months after the army forced out longruling autocrat Omar alBashir.
The demonstrations came as a standoff between the ruling military council and protest leaders drags on. Talks between the two sides over a powersharing agreement collapsed earlier this month when security forces violently broke up a protest camp in Khartoum.
The ensuing clampdown killed at least 128 people cross the county, according to protest organizers. Authorities say the toll was 61, including three security forces.
The marches, the first since the June 3 crackdown, also mark the 30th anniversary of the Islamistbacked coup that brought alBashir to power in 1989, toppling Sudan’s last elected government. The military removed alBashir in April amid mass protests against his rule.
The crowds gathered at several points across the capital and its sister city of Omdurman before marching toward the homes of those killed since the uprising began.
“This is a very important day for the Sudanese people,” protester Hamdi Karamallah said.
The protest movement erupted in December, triggered by an economic crisis. The protesters remained in the streets after alBashir was overthrown and jailed, fearing that the military would cling to power or preserve much of his government.
Osman Mirghani, a Sudanese analyst and the editor of the daily newspaper alTayar, said the marches “changed the equation” in favor of the Forces for Declaration of Freedom and Change, which represents the protesters.
“Now, all pressure cards are in the hands of the FDFC. The marches corrected the situation,” he said.
Video clips showed protesters running away from security forces in the streets of Khartoum and seeking shelter from clouds of tear gas.
Mohammed Yousef alMustafa, a spokesman for the Sudanese Professionals’ Association, a leading protest organization, said security forces used tear gas to disperse protesters in Omdurman and the district of Bahri in the capital.
The Sudan Doctors Committee, the medical arm of the group, said a protester was shot dead in Atbara. Nazim Sirraj, a prominent activist, said at least four people were killed in Omdurman.
Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, deputy head of the military council, said the generals want to reach an “urgent and comprehensive agreement with no exclusion.”
“We in the military council are totally neutral . ... We do not want to be part of the dispute,” he told a gathering of supporters.