KHARTOUM: Sudanese security forces shot dead at least 10 anti-coup protesters and wounded dozens more on Wednesday, medics said, in the bloodiest day since the military’s October 25 takeover.

The fatalities — all in Khartoum, especially its northern districts — raised to 34 the death toll from unrest since the military seized power, a pro-democracy doctors’ union said. Hundreds more have been wounded.

Demonstrators had taken to the streets across the capital even though telephone lines and internet services had been disrupted since the military took over, journalists reported.

“The people choose civilian rule,” demonstrators chanted, also shouting slogans against Sudan’s ruler, top general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

The security forces fired tear gas, injuring several more protesters, witnesses said. They have denied using live ammunition.

The doctors’ union said most of the casualties had suffered gunshot wounds to “the head, neck or torso”, but added that the demonstrators were still marching.

Demonstrations also erupted in Port Sudan, a journalist said, against the coup which halted a democratic transition that followed the 2019 toppling of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir.

“It was a very bad day for the protesters,” Soha, a 42-year-old protester, said. “I saw a person with gunshot wounds behind me and there were a lot of arrests” in Khartoum.

Efforts to stem the protests have seen hundreds arrested, including activists, passers-by and journalists. Qatari network Al Jazeera’s bureau chief was arrested on Sunday and released Tuesday.

The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors has said security forces have also arrested injured people inside Khartoum hospitals.

The Sudanese Profess­ionals Association, an umb­rella of unions instrumental in the 2019 protests, denou­nced “immense crimes against humanity” and accused the security forces of “premeditated killings”.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on a visit to Kenya on Wednesday urged Africans to watch out for rising threats to democracy. He told Sudan’s military the country stood to regain badly-needed international aid if it restores the “legitimacy” of civilian government.

Washington has suspended some $700 million in assistance to Sudan since the coup.

“If the military puts this train back on its tracks and does what’s necessary, I think the support that has been very strong from the international community can resume,” said Blinken. Prior to 2019, Sudan had been under some form of military dictatorship for much of its modern history.

Burhan has declared a state of emergency, ousted the government and detained the civilian leadership, derailing a transition to full civilian rule and drawing international condemnation.

Burhan insists the military’s move “was not a coup” but rather a push to “rectify the course of the transition”.

US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee has been shuttling between the generals and the ousted civilian government in a bid to broker a way out of the crisis. Phee has called for the reinstatement of ousted Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, who is effectively under house arrest.

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2021