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Sudanese protesters say more than 30 people were killed after security forces stormed the main protest camp in the capital Khartoum in the worst violence since the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir, condemning the international community.
The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), which spearheaded national protests that began in December, said Monday's crackdown was a "bloody mbadacre".
"We hold the Transitional Military Council (TMC) responsible for what happened this morning," said the SPA, referring to the ruling military council, which currently runs the country.
Democratic leaders have called on people to participate in night marches and block the main roads as part of "total civil disobedience" in order to "paralyze public life" in this country of North Africa.
The Sudanese Medical Committee announced Monday that the death toll, which includes at least one child, is increasing and that it is difficult to count in the sit-in area located outside the complex. Khartoum.
The group said hundreds of people were injured, mainly by gunfire, and that witnesses said dead bodies of demonstrators were shot dead in the Nile near the sit-in site of the protest.
The United Nations condemned the excessive use of force by security forces against protesters and called for an independent investigation into the deaths resulting from the violence.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement that he was "alarmed" by reports that security forces opened fire in a hospital in Khartoum.
"What is clear to us is that the security forces have used excessive force against civilians, people have died, people have been injured," said the door. UN spokeswoman Stephane Dujarric.
Guterres urged the Sudanese authorities to facilitate the opening of an independent investigation into deaths and to ensure that those responsible are held accountable. He also reiterated his call for the resumption of negotiations on a peaceful transfer of power to an authority led by civilians.
"Challenge belief"
Witnesses said that the main sit-in outside the Ministry of Defense had been cleared. Images on social media showed chaotic scenes of people fleeing into the streets as gusty bursts of fire hit the air.
Protesters took to the streets elsewhere in Khartoum and beyond, setting up barricades and roadblocks filled with burning stones and tires.
The doctors' committee said that the armed forces opened fire inside the city's East Nile hospital and prosecuted "peaceful protesters".
Another hospital near the site of the sit-in was surrounded and volunteers prevented from accessing it.
The British ambbadador to Sudan, Irfan Siddiq, tweeted that the attacks on hospitals and clinics "defy all belief".
"People wounded in today's terrible attacks need unhindered access to medical care," he said. "Medical centers must be a safe place."
The TMC denied the attacks on hospitals, Spokesman Sham El Din Kabbashi, spokesman, said that the security forces were pursuing the "undisciplined elements" who had taken refuge on the site of the protest and had sown chaos.
"The Transitional Military Council regrets the evolution of the situation, reaffirming its total commitment to the security of citizens and renewing its call for negotiations as soon as possible," said the TMC in a statement.
The council is currently overseeing a two-year transition period during which it has committed to holding presidential elections.
Protesters, however, remained on the streets demanding that the TMC hand over power – as soon as possible – to a civilian authority.
& # 39; Treason of trust & # 39;
The crackdown has provoked strong reactions from the international community, which holds the TMC fully accountable for what has happened.
The African Union called on the TMC and the leaders of the demonstration to resume "urgently" negotiations, calls that were taken over by Qatar and Germany.
The United States called the attack "evil" and said it needed to be stopped.
The former British ambbadador to Sudan, Rosalind Marsden, told Al Jazeera that it remained to be seen whether statements denouncing the TMC would be followed by concrete actions.
"Will there be a UN Security Council discussion on this in the coming days?" she said, speaking of London.
"Some of the opposition leaders are calling on the UN Security Council and the African Union to demand an immediate transfer of power from the Transitional Military Council to a democratic civilian government led by the military. freedom and change, as well as the immediate end of the Sudanese conflict, internal wars, "she said.
Marsden called the military crackdown "a big step backwards to achieve stability in Sudan".
"The protest movement considers what happened this morning as a major betrayal of the trust of the Sudanese people who were ready to consider the TMC as a partner in the process of democratization," she said.
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