On the fourth anniversary of the rebellion that ultimately led to the ousting of President Omar al-Bashir‘s thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Khartoum, and Sudanese security forces used tear-gas and stun grenades to disrupt them.
On Monday, protesters dressed in Sudanese flags hoisted signs demanding that military leaders be held responsible for the 120 deaths that had occurred since seizing control in a coup on October 25, 2021.
No one was said to have been murdered on Monday, but a lot of young people were transported to a hospital in the capital to get treated for injuries they got during the march.
After riding his motorbike to deliver a hurt protester, Mohamad Amin was parked in front of the hospital.
“The police are violent,” he told reporters. “The young man I brought to the hospital was hit in the back of the head with a tear gas canister.”
The Resistance Committees, who oppose a deal made last month by security forces and political elites, took the initiative in the demonstration. These neighborhood organisations that are in charge of Sudan’s pro-democracy movement decried the agreement as a betrayal of the main goals of the 2018–2019 rebellion, including reform of the security sector and transitional justice.
“The agreement already failed,” said Menjan Hamza, 22, who participated in the march on Monday. “The [security forces and politicians] made an agreement, but what about our martyrs? Nobody was sentenced for the killings [security forces] committed in the past year.”
The global community still backs the deal as a “positive step” towards restoring a transition to democracy. Diplomats hope the second part of the agreement, which politicians and security officials are supposed to settle next month, will address outstanding issues.
“On the Anniversary of the December revolution, I hope that the political process will realize the demands and aspirations of the Sudanese men and women who took to the streets four years ago and continue to struggle for a future of peace, democracy, human rights and equal citizenship,” tweeted Volker Perthes, the UN envoy to Sudan.
The military cast doubt on the future of the agreement after its top general, Abdel Fatah al-Burhan, told soldiers last week that civilians would never have control over the armed forces.
The military in Sudan has control over valuable civilian industries, which critics claim harms the nation’s economy. Military personnel are likewise exempt from legal prosecution, according to the human rights organisation Redress.