UPDATE: Anti-coup protests continue with general strike in Sudan, at least 4 dead after live ammunition dispersed crowds on Monday

Widespread public protests against the military’s seizure of power continued on Tuesday, with comprehensive strike action and civil disobedience campaigns, organized by local neighborhood resistance groups and workers associations. 

The death toll from the security crackdown on protests against the coup in Sudan has climbed to at least seven people, with 140 injured, according to information from Sudan’s health ministry cited in Reuters. 

The Central Committee of Sudan Doctors, the doctors’ coordination group that played a role in the revolution, has confirmed four deaths among protesters. 

The casualties come as security forces from the military and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces fired live ammunition into crowds near the military headquarters in Khartoum on Monday, with reports of gunfire continuing to appear on social media late into the night. Protesters had gathered at the site of military power on Monday to protest a coup that began with the arrest of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.

In a press statement on Tuesday afternoon, Sovereignty Council President General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who dissolved the post-revolution transitional civilian-military government and imposed a state of emergency on Monday, cited the security situation to justify his seizing power and arresting Hamdok, adding that the prime minister would return to his house "when we feel the area is safe and there is no threat to him."

Yet, Foreign Minister Mariam al-Sadig al-Mahdi tweeted on Tuesday that “We don't yet know of what is happening to our prime minister” and that “we condemn this military coup” and “wouldn’t surrender to its unconstitutional declarations.”

Along with the prime minister and at least four other ministers and civilian members of the transitional sovereign council, 320 members from the civilian Freedom and Change Coalition had been arrested as of Monday night, according to a member of the coalition who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity. 

Tuesday’s strike included aviation workers, university teachers, pharmacists, public sector employees, bankers and doctors — who announced that they would withdraw from all hospitals and would be treating only emergency cases. Many shops were closed across Khartoum on Tuesday, with the strike continuing despite a decree issued by Burhan dissolving the steering committees of all professional unions and syndicates.

Protests continued to take place in Omdurman, one of the three cities that make up Khartoum. However, eyewitnesses told Mada Masr that police who were present during yesterday’s protests were not present on Tuesday and that only military and Rapid Security Forces personnel were deployed. 

Telecommunication networks within the country returned on Tuesday evening, though they had remained suspended for the majority of the day. 

Royal Care International Hospital, close to the military headquarters, received many of those injured on Monday. An eyewitness at the hospital told Mada Masr that one of those killed had been shot in the head, and that many of those injured were in grave condition, with wounds to the head and neck. 

Thousands of protesters took to the streets on Monday to decry the military’s power grab, which began in the early morning hours with the arrest of Hamdok and other civilian members of the transitional sovereign council and cabinet by security forces. 

Sources in Sudan’s information ministry told Mada Masr that before Hamdok was taken from his residence, security forces asked him to support Burhan’s move, but he refused. The prime minister’s office later released a statement calling for the Sudanese people to peacefully take to the streets to protect the gains of the revolution.

Mada Masr observed on Monday widespread deployment of Sudanese military forces and the Rapid Support Forces, who closed off major bridges linking the three cities that make up the capital. 

Despite the roadblocks, protesters were able to make their way into the area around the military headquarters, according to eyewitnesses. However, shortly afterward, the sound of gunfire was heard in the neighborhoods around the headquarters and to the east of Khartoum International Airport. Eyewitnesses fleeing these areas as security forces fired teargas into the crowds told Mada Masr’s correspondent that a protester had been shot in the head.

As protesters tried to defy the coup, Burhan appeared on Sudanese state television on Monday to read a prepared statement announcing that he is dissolving the military-civilian transitional sovereign council and the cabinet and declaring a state of emergency.

Burhan also announced that several articles of the transitional constitutional document will be suspended, including all those providing for a civilian role in the composition of the transitional sovereign council, cabinet and legislative council, and which provided for military leaders to hand power over to civilians in the coming months. He also suspended articles calling for the dismantling of the remnants of former President Omar al-Bashir’s regime and the recovery of stolen funds, as well as the article calling for the investigation into the deadly sit-in dispersal outside the military headquarters in June 2019.

Burhan announced that he would install an interim technocratic government to run the country until general elections, which he said would be held in July 2023.

While there has been widespread deployment of military forces to secure the capital, Mada Masr witnessed two instances on Monday in which military officers passing by in jeeps joined in protesters’ chants supporting a civilian government, amid reports of tension within security forces. 

Following Burhan’s dissolution of the government, international statements began to pour in. 

In a statement released by the Foreign Ministry, Egypt called for all sides “to place the higher interest of the nation and national accord above all considerations.” 

A statement from Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry, meanwhile, called for the protection of “the political and economic gains” that Sudan has made and for “unity.”

Statements of condemnation poured in from Germany, France, and the United Nations Mission in Sudan, referring to the move as a coup and demanding a halt to the military takeover while China urged for dialogue between Sudanese factions. The Arab League, meanwhile, issued a statement of “deep concern,” as did the United States. 

United States Envoy for the Horn of Africa Jeffry Feltman was in Khartoum as recently as Saturday, when he met with the Sudanese foreign minister, and with Hamdok and Burhan.

On Monday night, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the US had paused the full US$700 million in emergency assistance allocated to Sudan pending a review of the developments in Khartoum. American financial support was intended to help Sudan transition to a fully civilian government. Additional US assistance could also be affected, said Price.