#Khartoum #prodemocracy #activists #lift #sitins
Organizers of the sit-ins in Khartoum, which began 10 days ago to force the Sudanese army to hand power back to civilians, announced on Monday that they had disbanded two of their four camps.
The protests began after security forces killed nine protesters in anti-coup rallies of tens of thousands on June 30, according to pro-democracy medics, in the deadliest violence so far this year.
In response, protesters called for “unlimited” sit-ins the following day to end military rule.
They set up four camps – two in central Khartoum on streets they had barricaded with bricks, and one each in the capital’s twin cities of Omdurman and North Khartoum.
But on Monday, as Sudan celebrated the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha for a third day, “resistance committees” announced they were disbanding the Omdurman camp.
The committees are influential neighborhood groups that have organized demonstrations since the October 25 coup.
A sit-in outside Al-Jawda hospital in Khartoum was lifted on Friday, activists said. It ended on the eve of Eid al-Adha, a major holiday on which many Khartoum residents return to their provincial homes for several days.
The other two sit-ins continue even as the number of protesters taking part has fallen because of the holiday.
Rallies on June 30 and the sit-ins that followed marked a resurgence in the protest movement for civilian rule. Although the movement had continued to hold anti-coup rallies almost weekly, they appeared to be diminishing in intensity.
Medical experts say a total of 114 people have been killed in security forces crackdowns on protesters since the October coup, which disrupted a transition to civilian rule forged after the 2019 ouster of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir.
The coup drew international condemnation and cuts in essential aid.
Four days after the sit-ins, army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan pledged to make way for civilian rule last week, but activists are deeply skeptical of his pledge.
On Thursday, pro-democracy groups, including political parties and resistance committees, announced their plans to set up an anti-Burhan Revolutionary Council.
Democratic interludes have been rare in Sudan’s history, and the military dominates lucrative companies specializing in everything from agriculture to infrastructure projects.
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