Hundreds of thousands of protesters rallied Sunday in Khartoum and other Sudanese cities against the military after the ousting of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok’s cabinet.
Heavy deployments of joint forces including the military, riot police as well as security and rapid support forces were seen in the streets of the capital.
A nationwide civil disobedience campaign in Sudan on Saturday brought the country’s capital to a standstill, with streets filled with demonstrators chanting anti-military slogans and waving anti-coup banners.
The protests were called by the activist coalition Sudanese Professional Association (SPA) who are demanding the restoration of the country’s transitional civilian government and who called on protesters to join a “million-man march” against the military takeover.
“We are here to tell the world that we will not accept any military interference to decide the fate of our country,” one protester in Khartoum said Saturday.
The military took violent steps to repress the demonstrations, killing at least three people and wounding at least 100 others, according to the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors (CCSD), which is aligned with the civil component of the now-dissolved Sovereign Council.
The CCSD said people were wounded during the protests when the military fired live bullets and used tear gas at demonstrators in several areas across the country to disperse the crowds.
Defying the military’s response, demonstrators called for protests to continue on Oct. 31. And civil disobedience campaigns continue throughout the country, with many shops and banks continuing to keep their doors closed in protest of the coup.
The coup has been widely condemned by world leaders, including those from the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the African Union and the United Nations, who have all urged stakeholders to return to the country’s democratic transition process.
On Saturday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he applauded the “courage of so many people who peacefully protested military rule.”
“The military should take heed,” Guterres said in a tweet. “Time to go back to the legitimate constitutional arrangements. Reports of violence are alarming & perpetrators must be brought to justice,” he said.
