Sudan coup: pro-democracy marches begin in Khartoum

Supporters of the Umma party, Sudan’s largest political party, in Omdurman. (Photograph: Ebrahim Hamid/AFP/Getty)

Sudan’s six-day-old junta was facing its most serious challenge as significant pro-democracy marches set off on Saturday in the capital, Khartoum, to protest against Monday’s coup, setting up a confrontation with the military.

As security forces set up checkpoints and blocked bridges to the twin city of Omdurman, witnesses and social media said marches had set off from a number of areas, with some reportedly converging close to Khartoum’s 60th Street, a main thoroughfare that runs parallel to the Blue Nile.

At least one image posted on social media also appeared to show a new barbed wire barrier constructed by security forces blocking one of the city’s main highways.

“We will not be ruled by the military. That is the message we will convey at the protests,” said Tahani Abbas, a Sudanese rights activist.

“The military forces are bloody and unjust and we are anticipating what is about to happen on the streets,” Abbas said. “But we are no longer afraid.”

Mawahib Ali, 33, from the Wad-Nubawai neighbourhood in Omdurman, was planning to march to the country’s parliament building close to the Nile in Omdurman.

“This time our job isn’t easy, we don’t want the army any more, so you need to really work hard and insist on people to go out, but I am optimistic that we will win,” she explained.

With bridges and roads closed, some marchers said they planned to head to different locations if they could not join in.

The marches began as the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, warned that Sudan’s security forces must respect human rights, adding that any violence against peaceful demonstrators was “unacceptable”.

The US continues to stand with “Sudan’s people in their nonviolent struggle for democracy”, he said in a tweet.

The demonstrations came as Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the Sudanese general leading the coup, announced he would appoint a technocrat prime minister to rule alongside the generals. The scale of the opposition’s “march of millions” will be seen as a key indicator of the military’s grip.

Burhan has insisted the military’s takeover “was not a coup” but only meant to “rectify the course of the Sudanese transition”.

However, with many saying they continued to recognise the cabinet of the deposed prime minister Abdalla Hamdok as the legitimate government, and the US, World Bank and others cutting crucial foreign aid to the economically battered country, the military has struggled to stamp out protests.

On the eve of Saturday’s rallies, a US official said between 20 and 30 people had died, adding that the protests would be a “real test” of the intentions of Sudan’s military.

Echoing Blinken’s statement, Britain’s special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, Robert Fairweather, urged Sudan’s security forces to “respect freedom and right of expression” for protesters.

“Peaceful protest is a fundamental democratic right. The security services and their leaders will bear responsibility for any violence towards any protesters,” he tweeted.

Heavily armed security forces tore down protest barricades of tyres and rocks blocking roads, and carried out random searches of people and cars. With authorities restricting internet and phone signals, protesters were handing out flyers calling for a “march of millions” on Saturday under the slogan “Leave!”.

Security forces fired at protesters on Thursday night in Bahri, across the Nile from the capital, Khartoum, using live and rubber bullets, witnesses said. A doctors’ committee said one person was killed while two others were wounded and

“Confronting peaceful protesters with gunfire is something that should not be tolerated,” said Haitham Mohamed, a protester in Khartoum. “It will not make us back down; it only strengthens our resolve.”

Recent pro-democracy demonstrations, including in the immediate run-up to the coup, have hugely outnumbered pro-military rallies, which the generals are accused of backing as part of their preparations to seize power.

In an interview with Russia’s state-owned Sputnik news agency published on Friday, Burhan said the new premier would form a cabinet that would share leadership of Sudan with the armed forces. “We have a patriotic duty to lead the people and help them in the transition period until elections are held,” Burhan said in the interview.

However, on Thursday night Burhan left open the possibility of Hamdok – who is under house arrest – returning as prime minister, saying the army was negotiating with him to form the new government.

In a speech to groups that helped remove the dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019, he said consultations were under way to select the prime minister. “Until this night, we were sending him people and telling [Hamdok] … complete the path with us. Until this meeting with you, we were sending him people to negotiate with him and we are still having hope,” said Burhan on Al Jazeera TV.

“We told him that we cleaned the stage for you … he is free to form the government, we will not intervene in the government formation, anyone he will bring, we will not intervene at all.”

Hamdok, an economist and former senior UN official, was initially held at Burhan’s residence when soldiers rounded up the government on Monday. He was allowed to return home under guard on Tuesday.

The generals had not yet produced a list of candidates for the premiership, Burhan said. The decision to appoint such a premier follows earlier calls by the generals for a nonpartisan technocrat cabinet.

The military takeover came after weeks of mounting tensions between military and civilian leaders over the course and pace of Sudan’s transition to democracy.

Agencies contributed to this article