2 killed as thousands protest military takeover in Sudan

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AA) - Two Sudanese protesters were killed by army fire on Saturday in the capital Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman, according to a doctors’ committee.

"Two demonstrators were killed in the city of Omdurman by the militias of the putschist military council," the independent Central Doctors Committee said in a Facebook post.

The deaths came as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Khartoum on Saturday to protest this week’s military takeover in Sudan.

Protesters marched in the Al-Kalakla neighborhood in the southern part of Khartoum and in Bahri, the northern twin city of the capital, according to an Anadolu Agency reporter.

Demonstrators chanted anti-military slogans and waved anti-coup banners, amid calls for the resignation of the head of the ruling military council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, eyewitnesses said.

Saturday’s protests were called by the Sudanese Professional Association (SPA), an activist coalition, to demand the restoration of the transitional civilian government in Sudan.

On Monday, Sudan’s ruling military council announced a state of emergency and dissolved the transitional sovereign council and government hours after detaining Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and ministers in his civilian government.

The council also suspended some provisions of the constitutional document outlining the political transition in Sudan.

Deep tensions escalated between the military and the civilian administration in Sudan after a failed military coup last month amid rival protests in Khartoum.

Before the military takeover, Sudan was administered by a sovereign council of military and civilian officials, which oversaw the transition period until elections slated for 2023, as part of a precarious power-sharing pact between the military and the Forces for Freedom and Change coalition.

*Writing by Ibrahim Mukhtar in Ankara