A Sudanese protester has been killed as thousands rallied against last year’s military coup, that targeted autocrat, Omar al-Bashir three years ago.

The Independent Central Committee of Sudan Doctors opined that the 19-year-old was hit “by a bullet fired by coup forces” during the crackdown on the demonstrations in Eastern Khartoum.

According to the Committee, the death has brought the death toll to about 94 from the crackdown on anti-coup protests since the October 25, 2021, military coup led by Army Chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. The Doctors Committee also accounted that Security Forces “stormed Al-Jawda Hospital and fired tear gas inside, scaring patients and health workers and causing suffocation among some of them”.

Security Forces fired tear gas at demonstrators in the capital, Khartoum, its twin city of Omdurman, and in Wad Madani to the South, according to a witness’s account to reporters. Another Khartoum protester, Badwi Bashir, said “It is an important day… so we expect many to take to the streets despite the heat and Ramadan,” the Muslim holy month when the faithful observe a daytime fast.

“We just want to bring down the coup (leadership) and end the prospect of any future coups.”
Khartoum protester, Badwi Bashir

‘No to military rule’

According to the Civilian Alliance Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC), Sudan’s latest coup has “set fire to all aspects of life, turning our country into an arena of crises”.

Security Forces earlier closed key bridges and deployed forces around the Presidential Palace and army headquarters. In Omdurman, protesters broke through barbed wire blockades and marched through streets leading to the parliament building, according to reporters. Protesters marched in the Eastern State of Gedaref with banners that read “No to military rule” and “Away with the government of hunger”, said one witness, Ahmed Salah.

Demonstrations were also held in several cities across the Darfur Region, the Central State of North Kordofan and the Red Sea City of Port Sudan, according to witnesses to reporters.

Dating back Sudan’s Crisis

Sudan has been reeling from deepening unrest since its latest coup that has derailed a political transition period and hammered the economy of one of the world’s poorest countries.

In 1985, the day saw the ouster of President Jaafar Nimeiri following a popular uprising. In 2019 it marked the start of a mass sit-in outside army headquarters, after months of protests, against Bashir’s three decades in power. Five days after the start of the 2019 sit-in, generals bowed to the pressure on the streets to remove Bashir. But the protesters stayed on to press for civilian rule, only to be dispersed in a crackdown in June that year (2019) by men in military fatigues that claimed over 128 lives, according to doctors.

Sudan’s civilian and military leaders later agreed on a transition of power, which promised greater international engagement for the country as well as foreign aid and investment. But last October’s (2021) coup upended those plans, leading to the current wave of protests.