LONDON (AL- Jazeera) -Sudanese security forces have killed at least three anti-coup protesters, medics and an activist have said, as thousands of people rallied across Sudan to denounce military rule.
Protesters gathered in several cities on Thursday in the first widescale demonstration since Abdalla Hamdok announced his resignation as prime minister.
The rallies were the latest in a series of protests since Sudan’s armed forces, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, staged a power grab on October 25, sparking international condemnation.
The coup, which saw the civilian leadership removed and detained, derailed a rocky transition towards democracy that had started after the April 2019 removal of longtime leader Omar al-Bashir.
In Omdurman, the twin city of Khartoum, two protesters were killed, while in the Sudanese capital’s district of Bahri one demonstrator was shot and killed, according to activist Nazim Sirag and the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors (CCSD).
The CCSD said the first unidentified protester was killed after taking a “live bullet to the head by the putschist forces as he took part in demonstrations” in Omdurman.
The second, who also has not been identified, “was hit by a live bullet to the pelvis” during the Omdurman protests while the third was killed in North Khartoum due to “live bullets to the chest,” they added.
There was no immediate comment from security forces.
The deaths come a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had appealed for Sudanese security forces to “cease using lethal force against demonstrators & commit to an independent investigation”.
Thursday’s killings brought the overall death toll since the military coup to 60, the CCSD said.
Thursday’s protests went ahead despite heightened security and the closure of main streets leading to the presidential palace and the army headquarters.