Five soldiers dead as Sudanese military leaders try to disperse a sit-in

At least five protesters were shot dead as Sudanese army leaders tried to divide a sit-in in front of the army headquarters, a doctors' committee said after hearing gunshots.

Strongly armed security forces were deployed in the capital on Monday in vans equipped with machine guns, while the demonstrators were building improvised barricades and closing the streets.

The United States and Britain have called for an end to the crackdown on protesters, who want the generals behind the overthrow of veteran President Omar Al-Bashir to be returned to civilian rule.

Three other people were killed "by the bullets of the military council", bringing to five the total number of deaths, wrote on Facebook the Central Committee of Sudanese doctors, close to the demonstrators, on a "mbadacre".

He also reported a "large number of critical casualties".

A gunshot was heard on the site of the demonstration by a AFP reporter, who reported a large deployment of security forces on the streets of the capital.

According to numerous reports, the army reportedly used force to disperse the sit-in in front of the army headquarters, where protesters had been camping for weeks.

"We are currently trying to disperse the sit-in at the headquarters of the People's Armed Forces by force of the military council," said the Sudanese Professionals Association (ASP), the organization that had organized the demonstrations at the National scale that started in December.

The SPA said that it was a "bloody mbadacre" and called on Sudanese to participate in "total civil disobedience" to overthrow the military council.

The rallies against Bashir's authoritarian regime, which lasted three decades, resulted in his ouster in April, but the protesters remained outside the army headquarters, calling on the generals to cede power to a government authority. transition.

Near the site of the protest, a witness living in the Burri neighborhood said that he could "hear the sound of the shots and that I saw a plume of smoke rising from the area of ​​the sit- in ".

Another resident of the region, east of Khartoum, said he saw "police uniform" forces trying to evict the protesters.

Britain's ambbadador to Khartoum, Irfan Siddiq, said he had heard "heavy gunfire" from his home.

"Extremely worried about … reports that Sudanese security forces are attacking the site of the demonstration, causing casualties, no excuse for such an attack, this must stop, now," he writes on Twitter.

The US Embbady in Khartoum said that "attacks by security forces against protesters and other civilians are false and must stop."

"The responsibility lies with the TMC and the TMC can not responsibly lead the Sudanese people," he added, referring to the Transitional Military Council.

The Alliance for Freedom and Change, the protest movement's coordination group, has called for "peaceful marches and rallies" all over the country and the establishment of barricades, including in the capital.

The protesters had already begun building a brick barricade and had lit tires and tree trunks in 60 Street, one of the main streets of the capital.

The SPA had said Saturday that she had reason to believe that the military council was "planning and working to end the peaceful sit-in at the siege with excessive force and excessive violence" after the deaths of three people at the time of the attack. Incidents on the sidelines of the demonstration. the week.

Negotiations between the leaders of the demonstration and the ruling military council failed, and the two sides failed to reach an agreement on whether a planned transitional body would be headed by a civilian or military personality.