KHARTOUM (AFP) – Thousands of Sudanese pro-military protesters rallied Wednesday against a UN bid to resolve a political crisis in the country three months after a coup, an AFP correspondent reported.
The demonstrators gathered outside the Khartoum office of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan, or UNITAMS, which launched talks with Sudanese factions this month.
They held up banners that read, “Down, down UN”, and others that urged United Nations special representative Volker Perthes to “Go back home”.
“We don’t want external intervention in our country,” protester Hamed al-Bashir told AFP outside the UN office.
On January 10, Perthes said the consultations aimed “to support the Sudanese to reach an agreement on a way out of the current crisis”. But he added that “the UN is not coming up with any project, draft or vision for a solution”.
On Wednesday, UNITAMS said protesters had gathered outside the mission’s office “demanding to expel the mission.”
“We defend freedom of assembly & expression and offered to receive a delegation in our premises which they refused,” it said on Twitter.
Sudan has been rocked by a deadly crackdown against protests calling for civilian rule since an October 25 military coup led by general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
The country’s latest military takeover derailed a power-sharing transition between the army and civilians that had been painstakingly negotiated after the 2019 ouster of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir.