KHARTOUM —
Sudanese security forces opened fire Monday as protesters
in several cities across the northeast African nation marched against military
rule and a worsening economic situation, witnesses told AFP.
اضافة اعلان
Costs of bread and transport have soared in recent
days, and protesters marched to demand a return to civilian rule and protest
the rising cost of living.
Regular protests
calling for civilian rule have taken place since a military coup led by army
chief
Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan on October 25, with heavy-handed crackdowns
leaving 87 dead, according to medics.
“Down with military rule”, protesters chanted in
Damazin, a city some 450km southeast of the capital Khartoum.
Security forces opened fire to disperse protesters,
witness Mohamed Abdel Qader said.
On Sunday, the price of bread shot up over 40
percent, from 35 to 50 Sudanese pounds, or from five to eight US cents.
Sudan has been especially vulnerable to fears of
global supply shortages in the wake of
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
As costs of fuel spike, the cost of transport has
also jumped 50 percent across Sudan.
In Nyala, state capital of
South Darfur in the west,
security forces fired a barrage of tear gas canisters to stop crowds.
“No to rising costs,” people shouted, according to
resident Abdel Moneim Mohamed. “No to military rule.”
‘Intolerable’
Protesters in
Nyala also
included residents of the vast camps set up when people were forced from their
homes during the conflict that broke out in Darfur in 2003.
“The situation has become intolerable,” said Hamad
Bashir from Atbara, a city 280km northeast of
Khartoum, a traditional center of
the country’s railway industry.
Bashir said that railway workers have not been paid
for two months.
Rail workers
began a strike on Sunday, said Hasham Khedr, the head of the Railway Workers’
Union.
Food insecurity is a major issue in the impoverished
country, where one in every three people are dependent on aid, according to the
United Nations.
The situation was exacerbated when October’s
military coup triggered broad international condemnation and punitive measures
that included a suspension of $700 million in US aid.
In Khartoum, local “resistance committees” have
called for protests to demand a return to civilian rule and the release of
detainees.
Authorities have rounded up hundreds of
pro-democracy protesters since the coup, many of whom have been released in
recent weeks.
On Monday, three protesters were detained in Nyala,
activists said.
The October coup derailed
a fragile power-sharing agreement between the army and civilians that had been
painstakingly negotiated after the 2019 ouster of longtime autocrat
Omar Al-Bashir.
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