Sudanese forces fired tear gas again at hundreds of people protesting against military rule in Khartoum on Friday, a day after one of the bloodiest days of protests of the year.
“The people want to overthrow Burhane” and “We demand revenge,” chanted demonstrators in the Sudanese capital near the presidential palace, some holding photos of victims of the crackdown.
At least nine Sudanese protesting General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane’s October 2021 coup were killed by security forces on Thursday, according to pro-democracy doctors. Most of the victims, including one minor, were fatally shot.
June 30th marked the anniversary of the 1989 coup by dictator Omar al-Bashir, who was overthrown by the army in 2019 after a popular uprising.
The army then agreed to share power with the civilian population. But on October 25, 2021, the head of the army, General Burhane, abruptly ended the fragile power-sharing regime by arresting his civilian partners, who have since been released.
Since that coup, 112 protesters have been killed and thousands injured by security forces, who regularly fire live ammunition into the crowd, according to the UN.
Because of this violence, and because they no longer want a military-civilian partnership, Sudan’s main civilian blocs and historical parties refuse to negotiate with the military.
Before the demonstrations on Thursday, UN special envoy Volker Perthes had hammered out that “the violence must stop”. Several embassies had demanded that “no more lives be lost” in a country where the army has almost always been in control since independence in 1956.
The United Nations and the African Union on Friday condemned “the excessive use of force by the security forces and the impunity” they enjoy and commented on Thursday’s crackdown.
In response to the coup, the international community suspended its financial aid, which accounted for 40% of Sudan’s budget. These sanctions did not bend the military, but brought down the economy with the collapse of the Sudanese pound and monthly inflation exceeding 200%.