A new large-scale popular mobilization takes place this Thursday in Khartoum to protest against the military coup of October 25 while the political situation in Sudan is still at an impasse.
At the beginning of the afternoon, the Popular Resistance Committees, spearheads of the demonstrations, had not given instructions and the processions were forming in the capital. A few hundred meters from the presidential palace in Khartoum, where the Sovereign Council sits, security forces fired tear gas canisters at demonstrators, AFP journalists noted.
Access blocked, internet cut
This Thursday, the army deployed new means to prevent the demonstration. Large cargo containers were placed overnight across bridges to reach the center of Khartoum. It is impossible to pass. Only two bridges, smaller and out of the way, are still open to traffic, according to witnesses.
The roads leading to the district where the centers of power are located have also been blocked, report Sudanese journalists who circulate in the city. Cameras have been installed on the main arteries and the avenue leading to the airport is cut off by barbed wire. In addition, police units, machine guns in hand, regulate the movement of vehicles that venture towards the heart of the capital.
As in every event, Internet access has been gradually cut off in the country. At 10 a.m. this Thursday, the monitoring group Netblocks noted a general cut in all operators.
In recent days, the most prominent members of the committees have been arrested, especially where they are best organized, in North Khartoum and Omdurman, across the Nile. But last night, the popular protest seemed not to weaken. Processions marched through the streets of these outlying districts, with megaphones, as a prelude to the demonstration on Thursday.
The intelligence services also have the right ” temporarily Since Monday, to monitor, arrest and detain civilians, which was no longer the case since the fall of the Omar al-Bashir regime in 2019.
The political crisis is stagnating
Politically and internationally, the Sudanese issue is struggling to evolve. The President of the Sovereignty Council, General Abdelfatah al-Burhane, as well as Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, are always in high demand.
The head of the UN mission in Sudan, the Saudi foreign minister, the Egyptian ambassador and the secretary general of the Arab League have all made it known that they have spoken to one or the other. But all of them stuck to general terms and made no announcements.
According to the Sudanese press, they mainly try to convince Abdallah Hamdok to give up resigning, as it would always be his intention.
For its part, the Umma party has drawn up a document for a way out of the crisis on which it still has to build a consensus with its partners in the Forces for Freedom and Change. The political situation is therefore still at a standstill.