UN urges Sudan to protect protesters, amid rallies for civilian rule

By Adel Abdel Rahim

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AA) – The United Nations on Saturday called on the Sudanese authorities to protect demonstrators, amid planned rallies to demand civilian rule.

“I urge the Sudanese authorities and the security forces to protect today’s planned demonstrations,” Volker Perthes, the head of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission Sudan (UNITAMS), said on Twitter.

Perthes urged the Sudanese authorities to restore the internet service. “Freedom of expression is a human right. This includes full access to the internet”.

Telecommunications companies in Sudan disrupted internet service across the country since early morning on Saturday, according to Sudanese activists.

Sudan has been in turmoil since Oct. 25 when the Sudanese military dismissed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok's transitional government and declared a state of emergency.

Hamdok, however, was reinstated on Nov. 21 under an agreement with Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the Sudanese army chief, in a move that aimed to resolve a political crisis that threatened to undermine Sudan's transition to democracy.

While countries and regional and international organizations, including the United Nations, welcomed the agreement, Sudanese political and civil forces rejected it, considering it an "attempt to legitimize the coup."

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

*Writing by Ibrahim Mukhtar