The situation in Sudan has turned worse after security forces killed at least four people while trying to forcibly quell a civil disobedience campaign launched on Sunday.
According to a report coming from the BBC, the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors (CCSD) said two people died after being beaten and stabbed and two people were shot dead by the paramilitary groups.
The capital Khartoum looked largely deserted on Sunday with public transport barely functioning and most commercial banks, private companies, and markets shut. The military reportedly arrested a number of airport officials and employees of Sudan’s central bank on Sunday.
The protest and opposition group leaders had called for ongoing civil disobedience from Sunday to make it as difficult as possible for the military to govern Sudan. The strike was announced after security forces stormed against a sit-in demonstration in Khartoum last week, killing dozens. The attack also hampered the transition talks between the military council and the protest groups.
“The civil disobedience movement will begin Sunday and end only when a civilian government announces itself in power on state television,” the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) said in a statement. “Disobedience is a peaceful act capable of bringing to its knees the most powerful weapons arsenal in the world.”
The civil disobedience call was made a day after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed made a visit Khartoum I a bid to revive talks between the military council and protest leaders on the country’s transition.
The Sudanese military took over after ousting President Omar al-Bashir in April. They promised a transition to civilian rule. But the protestors are not ready to trust the military council especially after Monday’s crackdown and they have rejected an offer of talks.
On Sunday, TMC spokesman Shams El Din Kabbashi said the council is ready to listen to the opposition’s demands and restart negotiations, which it ceased after the attack on the camp.
