One killed in Sudan anti-coup protests: medics

KHARTOUM (AFP): Sudanese security forces on Thursday shot dead a protester during renewed demonstrations against last year’s military coup led by army general Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, pro-democracy medics said.

The northeast African country has been gripped by unrest since Burhan seized power on October 25, 2021. He arrested the civilian leaders with whom he had agreed to share power in 2019 after mass protests led to the ouster of long-time autocrat Omar Al-Bashir.

The demonstrator was shot in the capital’s twin city of Omdurman, the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors said, bringing the total death toll from a crackdown on near-weekly anti-coup demonstrations to 120.

The protester, who was not named, died of wounds sustained after he was “hit in the abdomen by a bullet fired by security forces,” the committee said.

It was the first death since a security forces’ vehicle ran over a protester, medics said earlier, during demonstrations last month marking a year since the putsch.

Security forces also fired tear gas an stun grenades at protesters Thursday, an AFP journalist said.

Already one of the world’s poorest countries, Sudan plunged into a worsening economic crisis since the coup.

Demonstrators have for more than a year called on the military to “return to the barracks,” including during protests last week, while the United Nations urged restraint.

Efforts by the UN mission in Sudan to mediate a way out of the crisis between the country’s civilian and military leaders have so far failed to yield results.

But the two sides have welcomed a transitional constitution developed by the Sudanese Bar Association as a basis for a lasting agreement.

The man civilian bloc, the Forces for Freedom and Change, last week said it had approved a two-phase political process based on the Bar Association’s initiative, which would see the establishment of a civilian government.

Burhan had earlier said the military was presented with a “document” on the political process, adding: “We noted down observations to preserve the army’s dignity, unity and independence.”