STREET clashes again shook Sudan’s capital on Thursday, a day after security forces shot dead 15 protesters in the bloodiest day since the military’s October 25 takeover.
Wednesday’s killings were condemned by UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet, who said statement that “it is utterly shameful that live ammunition was again used yesterday against protesters”.
The United States (U.S.) State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs said on Twitter: “We condemn violence towards peaceful protesters and call for the respect and protection of human rights in Sudan.”
Since yesterday morning, police fired tear gas to disperse dozens of anti-coup protesters who had stayed on the streets of north Khartoum overnight, witnesses said, braving an intensifying crackdown that has drawn international condemnation.
Police tore down makeshift barricades the demonstrators had erected the previous day.
Later in the day, dozens of protesters returned to rebuild them and police again fired tear gas in a bid to clear the streets, witnesses said.
“Protesters responded by hurling stones at the police,” said one of them.
On October 25, top general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan – Sudan’s de facto leader since the April 2019 ouster of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir – detained the civilian leadership and declared a state of emergency.
The move upended Sudan’s fragile transition to full civilian rule, drawing international condemnation and a flurry of punitive measures and aid cuts.
UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Association Clement Voule said he had “received alarming reports of increased use of lethal force by the military against peaceful protesters”.
He called on the international community to “put pressure on Sudan to immediately stop the repression against civilians and respect their rights”.
Burhan insists the military’s move “was not a coup”, but a step to “rectify the course of the transition” to civilian rule.
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