KHATROUM (Al Jazeera) –
Sudan’s protest movement has announced two days of nationwide strikes, rejecting internationally backed initiatives to return to a power-sharing arrangement with the military following last week’s coup.
The Sudanese Professionals Association, which spearheaded a popular uprising that led to the removal of longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir in 2019, said late on Friday that mediation initiatives which “seek a new settlement” between the military and civilian leaders would “reproduce and worsen” the country’s crisis.
The association, which has a presence across the country, promised to continue protesting until a civilian government is established to lead the transition towards full civilian rule.
Under the slogan of “No negotiations, no compromise, no power-sharing,” the association called for strikes and civil disobedience Sunday and Monday.
Earlier this week, Nureldin Satti, Sudan’s ambassador to the United States, told Al Jazeera that the coup “cannot continue with the mobilization that we have seen and that we are going to see in the next days and weeks”.
The Sudanese military seized power on October 25, dissolving the transitional administration and arresting dozens of government officials and politicians. The coup has been met with international outcry and massive protests in the streets of the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country.
Since the coup, the international community has accelerated mediation efforts to find a way out of the crisis, which threatens to further destabilize the already restive Horn of Africa region.
Meanwhile, Al-Wathig al-Berier, the secretary general of the Umma party, urged the international community on Friday to pressure the military to de-escalate.