The fifth day of sit-ins, which mobilize hundreds of Sudanese demanding an end to military power and its bloody repression in Sudan, will have weakened General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane.

He announced on Monday July 4 that he wanted to give way to a civilian government.

On television, the head of the army and number one of the Sovereign Council – the highest authority in the country – announced that “the army will no longer participate in the national dialogue” launched under the aegis of the United Nations Organization ( UN) and the African Union (AU) in particular, saying they want to let the civilian forces form a "government of competent personalities".

"After its formation (...) we will dissolve the Sovereign Council and form a supreme council of the armed forces" which will only be in charge of "defense and security" issues, he added.

Immediately, in the bustling district of Bourri in Khartoum, new demonstrators came out to set up barricades, visibly unconvinced by the new promise of the military leader whose street has been calling for the fall non-stop since Thursday.

"We don't trust Burhane, he was there for the 'bloody' dispersal of the 'revolution' that overthrew dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019," then he carried out his putsch on October 25, so we only want let him leave once and for all," said Mohannad Othmane to AFP, perched on one of these barricades.

"We want him to be tried for all those who have been killed since the putsch" - 114 demonstrators, according to pro-democracy doctors - adds Oumeïma Hussein, who is demonstrating in another district of the capital.

"We're going to bring him down like we brought down Bashir," she insists again.

In 2019, pressure from the street forced the army to dismiss General Bashir and then share power with civilians – a rare occurrence in a country under the control of generals almost always since its independence in 1956.

Sit-ins in Khartoum and its suburbs

But the putsch radically changed the situation: the civilians were arrested for a time and the government they held – alongside the Sovereign Council – was dismissed.

Since then, every week, the pro-democracy demonstrated to demand a civil power.

Their movement, which had run out of steam several months ago, seemed to pick up again on Thursday.

On that day – the symbolic anniversary of another coup d'etat, that of Bashir in 1989, and of the “revolution” which overthrew it – tens of thousands of Sudanese demonstrated.

Facing them, the security forces fired live ammunition.

Result: deadliest day of the year with nine demonstrators killed, hundreds injured and as many arrests.

But, responds a protester in Khartoum, "the street is still there, despite all the brothers and friends we have lost".

"We will stay until the regime falls, until we obtain justice for those who have been killed or injured," he continues, refusing to give his name.

"I will participate in this sit-in until we are told to break camp, whether it takes a month or a year, even two years."

Since Friday, protesters have not left their three sit-ins in Khartoum, its northwestern suburbs Omdurman and its northeastern suburbs Khartoum-Nord.

If they chose three different points, it is because of the blocking by the security forces of the bridges which connect the capital to each of its suburbs, preventing a massive gathering in a single place.

FLC could come to the negotiating table

Monday's speech could be a game-changer politically.

Until now, the Forces for Freedom and Change (FLC), the backbone of the civilian government sacked during the putsch, refused to participate in the national dialogue.

"We have no interlocutor", repeated their executives, while the political parties and the resistance committees, which organize the demonstrations, ensured that they did not want to discuss before the end of the repression and the release of the arrested activists and demonstrators. .

After the speech, the FLC held an "emergency meeting" on Monday evening to decide what to do after General Burhane's announcement, one of their executives told AFP.

The civilian forces must compose between an international community which is pushing for negotiations between civilians and soldiers and a street which has been chanting since before the putsch: “no partnership, no negotiation” with generals.

They also inherit, if General Burhane keeps his promise, a country in political and especially economic slump.

Since the putsch, the international community has turned off the aid tap, hoping to make the military bend.

The economy, already on its knees, continues to plunge a little more, between exponential devaluation and inflation at more than 200%.

With AFP

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