General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane on Sunday May 29 lifted the state of emergency he had imposed on Sudan during his putsch on October 25.

This measure comes as the trial of four demonstrators, including an icon of the protest against the military, opened in Khartoum.

General Burhane, who had his civilian partners arrested, sacked the transitional government and imposed a state of emergency during his coup, has come under fire from criticism from the international community, which has made the return of civilians to the power the sine qua non for the resumption of its aid country, one of the poorest in the world. 

It also calls for an end to a crackdown that has already left a hundred deaths in the ranks of pro-democracy demonstrators and hundreds of arrests.

General Burhane "has issued a decree lifting the state of emergency throughout the country," the council he heads said in a statement.

It is an outstretched hand "to create the atmosphere necessary for a fruitful and meaningful dialogue for stability during the transition period".

A suspended democratic transition

The transition to democracy was launched in 2019 in Sudan, when soldiers and civilians agreed to share power for the time to lead the country to its first democratic elections after 30 years of military-Islamist dictatorship of Omar el-Béchir, dropped by the army under pressure from the street.

It was interrupted by General Burhane's putsch, who is now pleading for a dialogue with all the political forces that he is already calling on to make "concessions".

The United Nations and the African Union - which has suspended Sudan - are also pleading for a political dialogue on pain of seeing the country sink definitively "economically and in terms of security" when already, according to the UN, a Sudanese on two will go hungry by the end of 2022.

The anti-coup demonstrators refuse any dialogue with the military, scalded by the October coup.

"Trial of the Revolution"

On Sunday, the trial of four demonstrators detained for four months for the death of a police general opened in Khartoum, while hundreds of Sudanese brandished their portraits in front of the courtroom, noted a journalist from the AFP. 

Mohammed Adam, a young icon of the anti-coup and nicknamed Tupac by the street, appeared alongside his co-defendants, Mohammed al-Fattah, Ahmed al-Nanna and Mossaab al-Sherif.

Fist in the air, "V" for victory and broad smiles, they greeted theirs when they got out of the police van.   

The next hearing will take place on June 12, announced judge Zouheir Osmane who asked the forensic doctor for a report on possible torture when the four young people had gone on a hunger strike in March to protest against "inhuman treatment" and "police brutality".

"This trial is not only that of four revolutionaries, it is that of the revolution", wrote the popular committee of the restless district of Bourri in Khartoum, calling for "not to let the counter-revolutionary forces regain control of the state no matter what.

This trial is emblematic in the country where the police have announced only two deaths in their ranks, including this police general stabbed to death according to her in the chaos of the dispersion in January of one of the many anti-coup demonstrations.

Several dozen of his relatives were also present in court on Sunday, waving banners demanding "revenge".

On Saturday, two new demonstrators were killed in new anti-coup protests.

The UN envoy to Sudan, Volker Perthes, said it was "time to stop the violence and end the state of emergency".

With AFP

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