Protesters opposed to military rule in Sudan on Saturday reached the vicinity of the presidential palace in Khartoum, despite heavy tear gas and a communications blackout.
Witnesses said security forces fired tear gas to disperse the crowds. Internet services were disrupted in the capital, Khartoum, and locals were unable to make or receive domestic calls on Saturday, while soldiers blocked roads leading to bridges linking Khartoum with Omdurman, its sister city across the Nile river.
The SUNA state news agency reported that the province of Khartoum closed bridges on Friday evening in anticipation of the protests.
“Departing from peacefulness, approaching and infringing on sovereign and strategic sites in central Khartoum is a violation of the laws,” SUNA reported, citing a provincial security coordination committee.
“Chaos and abuses will be dealt with,” it added.
The demonstrators have demanded that the military has no role in government during a transition to free elections.
Protesters in Khartoum chanted: “Close the street! Close the bridge! Burhan will come straight to you,” referring to the military leader and sovereign council head Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan.
The military could not immediately be reached for comment.
Last Sunday, hundreds of thousands of people marched to the presidential palace and the security forces fired tear gas and stun grenades as they dispersed protesters who had been trying to organize a sit-in.
Forty-eight people have been killed in crackdowns on protests since the coup, the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors said.
Source: Radio Tamazuj