Sudan’s protest leaders on Monday called out protest supporters to renew nighttime demonstrations and marches in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country to condemn the security forces’ brutal attack on demonstrators at a Khartoum sit-in and create more pressure on the country’s ruling military council to hand over power to civilians, reported VOA News.
The security forces attacked thousands of protesters who had camped outside the Khartoum military headquarters on June 3, leaving dozens dead and hundreds wounded.
The protest organizers reported At least 128 people have been killed in the crackdown on demonstrators, but the military-backed authorities said 61 people died, including three members of the security forces.
The people of Sudan have been on sit-in protests since weeks, initially seeking the ouster of long-serving President Omar Al-Bashir and later to demand that the army generals who toppled hand power to a civilian administration.
On Monday the Freedom and Change alliance, the umbrella protest movement, called for new night-time protests as it released its “time-table” for the week.
In a statement, the alliance called for night-time demonstrations in residential areas in Khartoum and other regions starting Tuesday to “ask for our demands, which are the transitional civilian rule and condemning the massacre of June 3”.
The group representing the protesters said the night rallies will begin on Wednesday and Thursday nights.
“We are calling on our people in villages, towns and all over the country to participate,” the alliance said.
The protest group and the ruling military council are still at a standoff over who should lead the transition after the removal of the autocrat Omar al-Bashir.
The talks between the two sides are expected to resume following mediation led by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, but it is still unclear when they would actually begin.
