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 month’s coup.
The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), which spearheaded a popular uprising that led to the 2019 removal of longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir, said mediation initiatives which “seek a new settlement” between the military and civilian leaders would “reproduce and worsen” the country’s crisis.
The association called for strikes and civil disobedience on Sunday and Monday under the slogan of “No negotiations, no compromise, no power-sharing”, and promised to continue protesting until a civilian government is established to lead the transition towards full civilian rule.
Reporting from the capital, Khartoum, Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan said on the SPA had called on civilians on Saturday evening “to set up barricades in neighbourhoods and on main streets to encourage people, and to also reduce the number of people who would go to work on Sunday and Monday”.
Pro-democracy protesters have staged large demonstrations denouncing the coup, which derailed the country’s fragile path towards democracy and was met with international outcry.
Earlier this week, Nureldin Satti, Sudan’s ambassador to the United States, told Al Jazeera’s UpFront programme that the coup “cannot continue with the mobilisation 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.
Since the coup, the international community has accelerated mediation efforts to find a way out of the crisis, which threatens to further destabilise the already restive Horn of Africa region.
Al Jazeera’s Morgan said on Saturday that talks between the military headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) civilian component has so far failed to produce any results, despite the mediation efforts.
The Sudanese military seized power on October 25, dissolving the transitional administration and arresting dozens of government officials and politicians.
Since the coup, the international community has accelerated mediation efforts to find a way out of the crisis, which threatens to further destabilise the already restive Horn of Africa region.
Al Jazeera’s Morgan said on Saturday that talks between the military headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) civilian component has so far failed to produce any results, despite the mediation efforts.
