Security forces attempted to disperse hundreds of coup opponents with tear gas canisters in Khartoum and its suburbs on Saturday, a test day for protesters and generals alike.
The partisans of a civil power, reduced to organize themselves by SMS or graffiti on the walls with the Internet cut for three weeks, want to show that they still weigh, while the military will have to show restraint to reassure the international community which condemned the October 25 coup in Sudan.
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As with every show of force in the street, security forces fired tear gas canisters at hundreds of demonstrators in Omdurman, a northwest suburb separated from the Sudanese capital by a bridge over the Nile, journalists from the Nile noted. AFP.
They set up flying dams in the capital and its suburbs to block the demonstrators.
From the early hours of the morning, soldiers and paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) positioned themselves en masse in Khartoum, blocking the bridges connecting the center to its two suburbs (Omdourman and Khartoum-North) and crisscrossing the main axes.
While it was impossible to move from one neighborhood to another, one witness reported demonstrators in the south of the capital, while hundreds of others managed to protest in Omdurman.
"
Down with the Council
", "
No to military power
", they chanted.
Read alsoSudan: the Human Rights Council calls for the "immediate return" of the civilian government
General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, author of the coup, reinstalled the Sovereignty Council on Thursday, the highest authority in the transition since the fall of dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019, dismissed by the army under pressure from the street.
Since the coup, 15 people have been killed and more than 300 injured in the crackdown on protests, doctors said.
Hundreds of opponents and activists have been arrested, according to unions and other pro-democracy associations.
"Exploded opposition"
On October 25, General Burhane reshuffled the cards for a transition that had been faltering for months.
He rounded up almost all the civilians in power and put an end to the sacred union between civilians and soldiers which had ended 30 years of Bashir dictatorship.
Thursday, he acted on the rupture: he reformed the Sovereignty Council that he had dissolved on October 25, renewing the military and appointing apolitical civilians to replace supporters of a complete transfer of power to civilians.
With his second, General Mohammed Hamdane Daglo, head of the RSF and accused of serious abuses, they committed to “
free and transparent elections
” in the summer of 2023. Promises that have not appeased the opposition, while the backtracking is clearly visible.
Read alsoSudan: the army orders the release of ministers, promises a government
During the putsch, General Burhane suspended articles of the constitutional declaration supposed to frame the transition to the elections. He reintroduced them on Thursday but after removing all references to the Forces for Freedom and Change (FLC), a civilian bloc born from the popular revolt of 2019. “
Now that the coup has taken place, the military want to consolidate their hold on power,
”decrypts Jonas Horner, researcher at the International Crisis Group. Faced with the generals, "
the civil opposition to the coup d'etat is shattered and divided
", assures this specialist in Sudan.
In addition, the pro-democracy organizations that had managed to paralyze Sudan against Bashir this time seem unable to cast a wide net in one of the poorest countries in the world.
"More difficult"
For Volker Perthes, UN envoy to Sudan, "
the unilateral appointment of the Sovereignty Council makes a return to constitutional commitments
" in 2019
much more difficult.
But the priority on Saturday, adds Volker Perthes on Twitter, is that "
the security forces exercise the utmost restraint
”.
The overthrown Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok is still under house arrest.
The army has released only four ministers, despite almost daily calls from the international community for a return to civilian rule before October 25.
General Burhane has been announcing for several days the “
imminent
”
formation
of a government but nothing concrete so far.
In addition, the members of the new Sovereignty Council do not present a united front.
Observers noted that the three former rebel leaders returned to the body did not take an oath with the others.
They had announced that they were rejecting the putsch and have not appeared since their appointment.
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