Sudan’s security forces fire tear gas as thousands join protests against the coup
Thousands of people protested in Sudan’s capital on Wednesday against last month’s coup, shouting “no to military power” in defiance of a crackdown that has already claimed 24 lives.
Several demonstrations broke out in Khartoum, despite the fact that telephone lines were cut and Internet services were interrupted since the October 25 coup, reported AFP journalists.
Security forces fired tear gas at the protesters, causing several injuries, witnesses said.
The resumption of protests came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Africans to be vigilant about growing threats to democracy as he began a three-nation tour of the continent in Kenya.
“We have seen over the last decade what some call a democratic recession,” Blinken said in Nairobi.
The United States has suspended some $ 700 million in assistance to Sudan in response to the coup, which halted a democratic transition that followed the 2019 ouster of dictator Omar al-Bashir.
Senior General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan declared a state of emergency, overthrew the government and detained civilian leaders.
The army’s takeover of power has derailed the transition to full civilian rule and sparked international condemnation.
Burhan insists that the military’s move “was not a coup” but a push to “rectify the course of the transition.”
US Under Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee has been moving between the generals and the overthrown civilian government in an attempt to negotiate a way out of the crisis.
(AFP)
