Four demonstrators were killed, according to pro-democracy doctors, Thursday, June 30 in Khartoum, where tens of thousands of Sudanese chanted "the people want the fall of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane", the author of the coup which plunged the country into violence and a serious economic crisis since October.
As of Wednesday evening, while small processions marched here and there to call on the Sudanese to strike and mobilize on Thursday, a young demonstrator was killed by a "bullet in the chest" in Khartoum, according to doctors.
Thursday, four other protesters were killed, at least two "by bullets fired in the chest" by the security forces, reported a union of pro-democracy doctors, also denouncing their attacks on several hospitals in the capital.
Since October, the repression has left 107 dead and thousands injured, without however weakening the determination of the street.
"Even if we all have to die, the military will not govern us," chanted the crowd on Thursday.
The demonstrators intend to force the army to return power to civilians after the putsch which plunged one of the poorest countries in the world into economic and political slump.
Internet cut
June 30 is a symbolic day for this great East African country because it marks two important dates: the anniversary of the putsch that brought dictator Omar el-Bashir to power in 1989, a coup then carried out hand in hand by generals and Islamists, and monster rallies in 2019 that pushed the generals to integrate civilians into power after ousting Bashir.
The demonstrators want to repeat the feat of three years ago, and force the military power to return the reins of the country to civilians.
As with every call to demonstrate, the internet network and the telephone were difficult to access and the security forces were deployed on various bridges and arteries in Khartoum and its suburbs, noted AFP journalists.
The international community had however tried to prevent any new violence: the UN envoy Volker Perthes had hammered that "the violence must stop", and several embassies had demanded that "no more lives be lost".
But foreign capitals have struggled to put pressure on ruling generals in Sudan almost continuously since independence in 1956.
On October 25, 2021, when army chief General Burhane abruptly ended the fragile power-sharing by arresting his civilian partners, the international community cut its aid --40% from Sudan's budget.
"False political solution"
These financial sanctions did not bend General Burhane but they did plunge the economy: the Sudanese pound collapsed and inflation exceeds 200% every month.
Worse still, the specter of famine is looming: a third of the 45 million Sudanese suffer from "acute food insecurity", potentially fatal, and by September, this figure should reach 50% according to the UN.
Already at the beginning of June, the NGO Save the Children announced the death linked to hunger of two children.
In addition, the spiral of violence in a country at war for decades has resumed its infernal cycle: in Darfur, hundreds of people have died in clashes over land and water and demonstrations against the military end every week by deaths or injuries.
In addition, hundreds of activists have been arrested and dozens of them are still behind bars.
By demonstrating, the civilian bloc of the Forces for Freedom and Change (FLC), the backbone of the government sacked during the putsch, wants to "bring down the putschists and prevent any artificial alternative".
Because for the FLC, the "national dialogue" proposed by the army and the UN, is a "false political solution" which "legitimizes" the putsch.
They therefore pose as a precondition to any discussion the return to the sharing of power between civilians and soldiers - who, in addition to politics, largely dominate the economy of the country, rich in gold and natural resources.
With AFP
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