KHARTOUM (AFP) – Sudanese shuttered shops and barricaded Khartoum streets yesterday in a civil disobedience campaign to protest one of the bloodiest days since an October coup derailed the country’s democratic transition.
Security forces on Monday killed at least seven people during anti-coup protests by thousands, bringing the total fatalities from the crackdown on anti-coup demonstrations to 71, according to medics.
Sudan’s main civilian bloc, the Forces for Freedom and Change, called for two days of civil disobedience which began yesterday.
“Shop closed for mourning,” said a series of small signs posted on the closed outlets at the sprawling Sajane construction supplies market in Khartoum.
In several other parts of Khartoum, too, many pharmacies and other shops were shuttered, according to an AFP correspondent.
Sudan’s University for Science and Technology suspended activities as part of the civil disobedience, according to an official statement.
As they do regularly, police yesterday fired tear gas at dozens of protesters setting up roadbloacks, this time on the streets of east Khartoum, according to an AFP correspondent.
After Monday’s deaths, the United Nations special representative Volker Perthes condemned the use of live ammunition and the United States embassy criticised “violent tactics of Sudanese security forces”, the latest such appeals by world powers, which have not curbed a rising death toll.
