For the tenth consecutive day, the massive protests against the October 25 military coup in Sudan ended in clashes between protesters and security forces. Despite the roadblock and internet cut-off, the protesters tried to reach the gates of the presidential palace.
Discontent continues in Sudan. The security forces fired tear gas to disperse a crowd that was trying to reach the presidential palace and protest against the coup on October 25.
It is the tenth day of large demonstrations throughout the country, mainly in the capital Khartoum, where this Saturday and for the second time the protesters tried to reach the palace, despite the cut in telecommunications and the repression of the security forces.
In Khartoum, some 5,000 people took to the streets from various cities in the country and concentrated in the vicinity of the palace, shouting slogans such as “Power is for the people, the military to the barracks” and “The state is civil and not military “.
The call was made by the resistance committees, who usually mobilize hundreds of people dissatisfied with the idea of a military government or the pacts that derive from it.
The objective of reaching the palace is that there is the residence of Abdelfatah al Burhan, president of the Sovereign Council and military coup leader. A week ago, the protesters managed to reach the palace gates, although this Saturday they encountered a stronger cordon of the security forces.
The military and Rapid Support Forces also blocked the roads leading to the bridges linking Khartoum with Omdurman, its sister city across the Nile River. In Omdurman there were also clashes between protesters and security forces, according to a Reuters witness.
Abas Al Taer, leader of the resistance committees in Khartoum, said that “more than 30 protesters were injured by the impact of tear gas bombs, while many more suffered suffocation.”
The opposition group Sudan Professionals Association denounced in a statement that the security forces “used excessive violence against the protesters.”
It was known of other demonstrations in Madani and Atbara, although the news about these was limited by the cut of communications services in the capital, where people could not make or receive phone calls, nor access the Internet.
Military: “it is a violation of the laws”
A senior official of an Internet company, assured Reuters under anonymity, that the interruption of the service was a decision of the National Telecommunications Corporation. The state news agency SUNA reported that the province of Khartoum closed the bridges on Friday night in anticipation of the protests.
“Chaos and abuses will be dealt with,” the state news agency said. “Moving away from the quiet, approaching and infringing on sovereign and strategic sites in the center of Khartoum is a violation of the law,” the agency added, citing a provincial security coordination committee.
This Saturday marks two months since the military coup in Sudan that has led to dozens of demonstrations against the formation of a military government. Two days ago hundreds of Sudanese women took to the streets to claim the cases of sexual assault and rape against protesters.
Volker Perthes, UN special representative in Sudan, urged the Sudanese authorities not to obstruct the demonstrations. “Freedom of expression is a human right. This includes full access to the Internet. According to international conventions, no one should be detained for trying to protest peacefully,” Perthes said.
“We call the attention of the world and ask them to monitor what is happening in Sudan in relation to the revolutionary movement for freedom and democracy,” said the Committee of Doctors, which is part of the pro-democracy movement.
UN: “We demand a speedy investigation”
In Darfur, the governor asked residents not to loot the offices of the UNAMID peacekeepers and some sources confirmed to Reuters that they had heard gunshots in the vicinity on Saturday morning.
Sudan has experienced a political crisis since 2019, when the protests culminated in the overthrow of Omar al-Bashir, who had been in power for three decades. After the fall of Al-Bashir, the military and civilians formed a provisional government that failed on October 25 with another military coup that removed Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok.
But in recent days, Hamdok announced a new agreement with the military that would take him back to rule, something that generated the rejection of the protesters who once supported him, accusing him of betraying the principles of the civil uprising and demanding that the military surrender power to a fully civilian government.
Liz Throssell, spokeswoman for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, called last week for an independent investigation into allegations of sexual violence during mass protests against the coup in Sudan.
“We demand a swift, independent and thorough investigation of the allegations of rape and sexual harassment, as well as the reports of deaths and injuries of protesters as a result of the unnecessary and disproportionate use of force, in particular the use of live ammunition,” he stated. Throssell.
The European Union and the United States issued a joint statement on Thursday condemning the use of sexual violence “as a weapon to keep women away from demonstrations and silence their voices.”
Since the military coup, some 48 people have been killed by the repression of protests, according to the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors. The organizers of the marches assure that there will be new mobilizations for December 30.
With EFE and Reuters
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