At least nine protesters were shot dead Monday as Sudan’s military rulers tried to break up a sit-in outside the country’s army headquarters, a doctors’ committee close to the demonstrators said.
Three more people were killed “by the bullets of the military council,” bringing the total to five dead, the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors said in an update on its Facebook page, calling it a “massacre” before four more persons were added to the tally later on.
It also reported a “large number of critical casualties”.
Meanwhile, the US Embassy in Khartoum released a statement Monday saying the attacks on protesters “must stop”.
This came after the first two casualties from security forces violently broke up a sit-in outside army headquarters.
“Sudanese security forces’ attacks against protesters and other civilians is wrong and must stop,” the embassy wrote on Twitter.
“Responsibility falls on the TMC. The TMC cannot responsibly lead the people of Sudan,” it added, referring to the Transitional Military Council which has ruled Sudan since the ouster in April of president Omar al-Bashir.
The Sudanese protest leaders later said they had cut all contact with the military rulers and called for “total civil disobedience” after the deadly crackdown.
“We announce the end of all political contact and negotiations with the putschist Council,” the Alliance for Freedom and Change, the umbrella group of the protest movement, said in a statement.
