Sudan\u2019s opposition has rejected a plan by the country\u2019s military rulers to hold elections within nine months, a day after a deadly crackdown on protesters that saw the worst violence since the removal of President Omar al- Bashir in April.<\/p>\n
At least 35 people were killed on Monday when security forces stormed a protest camp outside the defence ministry in central Khartoum, according to doctors linked to the opposition.<\/p>\n
The military council, which has ruled since al-Bashir\u2019s overthrow, afterwards cancelled all agreements with the main opposition alliance and said an election should be held within nine months.<\/p>\n
But Madani Abbas Madani, a leader of the Declaration of Freedom and Change Forces opposition alliance, said a civil disobedience campaign would continue to try to force the council from power.<\/p>\n
The opposition rejected all that Transitional Military Council (TMC) Head Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said in his statement, Madani said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened, killing protesters, wounding and humiliation, was a systematic and planned matter to impose repression on the Sudanese people,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The leaders of protests that forced al-Bashir from power after three decades of authoritarian rule in April have demanded preparations for elections during a transitional period led by a civilian administration.<\/p>\n
The military council has also been under both domestic and international pressure to hand over power to civilians.<\/p>\n
The main protest organisers, the Sudanese Professionals Association, accused the security forces of perpetrating \u201ca massacre\u201d<\/em> when they raided the camp amid heavy gunfire.<\/p>\n
On Friday, the TMC had called the sit-in \u201ca danger\u201d<\/em> to the country\u2019s national security and warned that action would be taken against what it said were \u201cunruly elements\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n
On the same day, the military had also ordered the office of Al Jazeera Media Network in Khartoum to be shut down, without giving a reason for the decision, while also withdrawing work permits for the correspondents and staff of the Qatar-based news organisation.<\/p>\n
Mohammed Elmunir, a protester in Khartoum, said security forces blocked the exits of the sit-in site before opening fire on protesters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were shooting at everyone randomly and people were running for their lives. They blocked all roads and most tents at the sit-in have been set on fire,\u201d<\/em> Elmunir said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Sudan has been rocked by unrest since December, when anger over rising bread prices and cash shortages broke into sustained protests that culminated in the armed forces removing al-Bashir.<\/p>\n
But talks between a coalition of protesters and opposition parties ground to a halt amid deep differences over who will lead a transition to democracy that both sides had agreed will last for three years.<\/p>\n
In a televised address in the early hours of Tuesday morning, council leader al-Burhan said the opposition coalition was equally responsible for the delay in coming to a final agreement. \u2014 Al Jazeera<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sudan\u2019s opposition has rejected a plan by the country\u2019s military rulers to hold elections within nine months, a day after a deadly crackdown on protesters that saw the worst violence since the removal of President Omar al- Bashir in April. At least 35 people were killed on Monday when security forces stormed a protest camp […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":78770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78766"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78771,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78766\/revisions\/78771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}