Sudan military fires tear gas, closes bridges, to repress anti-coup protesters
Mobile phone lines in Sudan were cut on Wednesday and internet services disrupted as protesters gathered across the capital Khartoum and other cities to once again denounce last month’s military coup.
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Thousands of people chanted "no to military power" in defiance of a crackdown that has already claimed 24 lives.
In several places, security forces began firing tear gas as people carried pictures of those killed. Several briges linking Khartoum with other cities were closed.
Organised by local "resistance committees", the protesters are calling for a full handover to civilian authorities, and for the leaders of the 25 October coup to face trial.
4 photos from Northern State's participation in today's #Nov17March:
— Munchkin (@BSonblast) November 17, 2021
Abri
Dongola
Halfa
Albargeeg#SudanCoup https://t.co/T9JvyL5ljz
The coup, led by general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, ended a transitional partnership between the military and civilian groups that helped topple autocrat Omar al-Bashir in 2019.
Burhan insists the military's move was not a coup but a push to "rectify the course of the transition".
- Sudan civil disobedience hampered by internet cuts
- Sudan coup leaders release Islamists as detained premier refuses to stand down
US mediation
US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee has been talking to both military leaders and the ousted civilian government in an effort to find a way out of the crisis.
The US has already suspended some $700 million in assistance to Sudan.
The renewed protests come as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Africans to watch out for rising threats to democracy as he began a three-nation tour of the continent in Kenya.
"We have seen over the last decade or so what some call a democratic recession," Blinken said in Nairobi.
(With wires)
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