Thousands of people demonstrated Monday in different parts of Sudan in a call launched by several resistance committees in Khartoum, the capital, to mark the fourth anniversary of the December 2018 revolution that toppled dictator Omar Hassan al-Bashir.
With Sudanese flags and drums, the demonstrators have left in procession, in points such as Omdurman or Khartoum North, towards the Presidential Palace in front of a strong security device prepared by the authorities in case of greater disturbances.
Thus, after the Khartoum resistance committees decreed this Monday as a day of demonstration, the authorities have closed three key bridges linking the capital with the areas of Khartoum North, Obdurman and the eastern region of the Nile, as reported by the newspaper ‘Al Sudani’.
As part of the anniversary of the revolution, the head of the United Nations Mission in Sudan, Volker Perthes, said Monday that he hopes the political process in the country will «realize the demands and aspirations» of the people who took to the streets four years ago.
Sudan’s military authorities and the civilian coalition Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) signed in early December an agreement to relaunch the transition process, hard hit after the coup led in 2021 by the army chief and president of the Sovereign Transitional Council, Abdelfatá al Burhan, with the aim of holding elections within two years.
The signatories, in addition to the FFC — one of the main groups behind the demonstrations that ended with the 2019 ouster from power of the then president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir — include the National Umma Party, the Unionist Party, various rebel groups that signed the October 2020 peace agreement, and civil and trade union organizations in the country.
Al Burhan led a coup in October 2021 that ousted the transitional prime minister, Abdullah Hamdok, appointed after an agreement between the previous military junta and various civilian organizations and opposition formations.
Although Hamdok, who was arrested after the coup, returned to office in November 2021 following an agreement signed with Al Burhan amid international pressure, he finally stepped down after denouncing the bloody repression of the demonstrations against the coup in the African country, which has resulted in more than a hundred deaths at the hands of the security forces.
Al Burhan announced in July that he was stepping aside to allow civilian parties and organizations to agree on a new government. He assured that the army would not participate in the negotiations and urged the political forces to promote a «serious dialogue immediately» to «restore the unity of the Sudanese people», a decision applauded by the international community.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
