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At least four people were killed when Sudanese security forces decided to quell a campaign of civil disobedience launched on Sunday, leaving the streets deserted in the capital, Khartoum, as shops and businesses close despite military repression. .
Public transport was barely functioning and most commercial banks, private companies and markets were closed, although some state-owned banks and public service bureaus were opened.
Opposition and protest groups have called on workers to stay at home after security forces stormed a protest camp on Monday, killing dozens of people and carrying a fatal blow to Palestinian hopefuls. a peaceful transition after the overthrow of President Omar Hbadan al-Bashir in April.
Protestors for democracy have been campaigning for weeks to pressure the ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC) to entrust power to a civilian-led government.
On Sunday, protesters gathered tires, tree trunks and rocks to erect new roadblocks in Bahari district in northern Khartoum, an unidentified witness at the security agency said. AFP press.
"Almost all of Bahari's internal roads have roadblocks, and demonstrators are preventing even locals from going to work," said the witness.
Two people died after being beaten and stabbed and two people were shot dead, said the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors (CCSD), accusing paramilitary groups.
Security forces on Sunday arrested a number of airport officials and employees of Sudan 's central bank, the DPA news agency reported, citing colleagues of those arrested.
After Monday's bloody crackdown, TMC leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan canceled all agreements with the Declaration of Freedom and Change Forces (DFCF), an alliance of the opposition, and called on to elections in nine months.
The opposition rejected the plans.
"The civil disobedience movement will begin Sunday and will end only when a civilian government comes to power on state television," said the Sudanese Professionals' Association (ASP), which had spearheaded several months of protests against al-Bashir.
"Disobedience is a peaceful act that can bring the world's most powerful weapons arsenal to its knees."
The raid took place after weeks of bickering between TMC, who succeeded Bashir, and DFCF over who should lead the transition to the elections.
TMC spokesman, Shams El Din Kabbashi, said Sunday that the council was willing to listen to opposition demands and resume negotiations, which it halted after the attack on Sunday. camp.
Political result?
Waleed Madibo, from the Sudan Policy Forum, said the campaign would not likely make the TMC fall, but that it could split its leaders.
"By using violence as an imperative, he [the military] civil society has no choice but to go through civil disobedience. They are already gathering political dissidents, they have begun to badbadinate the sit-in leaders, and in so doing, the Transitional Military Council has totally eliminated any possibility of political results, "Madibo told Al Jazeera.
Led by men in military fatigues, the raid organized for several weeks outside the military complex resulted in more than 100 deaths, according to doctors close to the protesters.
According to the Ministry of Health, 61 people died in the crackdown, including 52 by "live ammunition" in Khartoum.
According to witnesses, the badault was led by the dreaded Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who originated from the famous Janjaweed militia, accused of committing violations of the conflict in Darfur between 2003 and 2004.
Also on Sunday, Sudanese state television announced that a former RSF commander, Mohamed Abdallah, had been replaced.
Protesters waving national flags during the sit-in in front of the army headquarters in Khartoum in May 2019 [File: Salih Basheer/AP]
Mediation interviews
The call for "civil disobedience" comes a day after the visit of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to Khartoum, with the aim of restarting talks between the generals and leaders of the protest on the country's transition.
The TMC took power in April after the dismissal of al-Bashir after several months of demonstrations against his reign of nearly 30 years.
Since then, he has resisted calls from protesters and Western countries to transfer power to a civilian administration.
Several rounds of talks with the protesters finally failed in mid-May.
In an attempt to revive the talks, the Ethiopian prime minister held separate meetings with both parties in Khartoum on Friday.
"The army, the people and the political forces must act with courage and responsibility in taking swift action for a period of democratic and consensual transition," Abiy said in a statement released on Monday. from the meetings.
"The army must protect the country's security and its people and its political forces must reflect on its future."
Three members of an opposition delegation who met with the Ethiopian prime minister were later arrested, their aides said Saturday.
Opposition politician Mohamed Esmat was arrested Friday and Ismail Jalab, one of the leaders of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement for the North (SPLM-N), was kidnapped from his home . SPLM-N spokesman Mubarak Ardol was also arrested.
Esmat and Jalab are both leading members of the Alliance for Freedom and Change, an umbrella for opposition parties and rebel groups.
The alliance, whose SPA is a key member, was the main organizer of mbad demonstrations since December, which led to the dismissal of Al-Bashir.
Khartoum stretched
The arrest of leaders may further complicate efforts to reconcile the protest movement and the generals.
"The Transitional Military Council is not really serious about negotiations with civilians, it could not have been more blatant in the eyes of the opposition, and it certainly paralyzes any effort to move forward. the negotiations, "said Eric Reeves, Sudan researcher at Harvard University. , told Al Jazeera.
Since the crackdown, the residents of Khartoum have mostly taken refuge in the interior and the streets have been deserted. RSF members and soldiers cleared the main streets of Khartoum on Saturday of the obstacles put in place by the protesters.
Lieutenant-General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, RSF leader and deputy chief of the TMC, warned that he would tolerate "no chaos".
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