Protesters Take to Sudan's Streets

People take part in a protest against the military rule in Khartoum, Sudan January 30, 2022. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
People take part in a protest against the military rule in Khartoum, Sudan January 30, 2022. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
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Protesters Take to Sudan's Streets

People take part in a protest against the military rule in Khartoum, Sudan January 30, 2022. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
People take part in a protest against the military rule in Khartoum, Sudan January 30, 2022. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig

Sudanese demonstrators marched in neighborhoods across the capital and the country on Thursday in protest at October's military coup and a wave of political detentions.

The takeover ended a partnership between the military and civilian political parties, drawing international condemnation and plunging Sudan into political and economic turmoil.

Protests organized by neighborhood resistance committees have drawn hundreds of thousands of people, and at least 79 have been killed and more than 2,000 injured in crackdowns.

Hundreds of protesters on Thursday diverged from planned routes to renew efforts to march on the presidential palace, but were met with tear gas and a heavy security presence a little more than a kilometer from their goal.

"We will continue demonstrating in the streets until we bring down military rule and bring back democracy," Reuters quoted 22-year-old university student Salah Hamid as saying.

Other protests took place across the Nile in the cities of Omdurman and Bahri, and farther away in Gadarif and Sennar.

Sudan's long-standing economic woes have been exacerbated since last month by the blockade of the Northern Artery, a key route for trucks carrying exports from Sudan into Egypt.

That protest, originally against a rise in electricity prices for farmers, has expanded to demand more support for both farmers and traders, and has trapped hundreds of Egyptian trucks in Sudan.

The US Embassy advised Americans on Thursday morning to avoid crowds and demonstrations and to keep a low profile.

While some protesters in Khartoum said they were opposing a normalization of relations with Israel that has been spearheaded by the military, others marched for the more than 2,000 people who lawyers say have been arrested since the coup. More than 100 remain in jail, one lawyer said on Thursday.

Two prominent political critics of the military, Khalid Omer Yousif and Wagdi Salih, were arrested on Wednesday.

Brigadier Altahir Abu Haja, media adviser to military ruler General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, said in a statement on the state news agency SUNA that their arrests were not political and that investigations were continuing.



Türkiye Says it Kills 15 Kurdish Militants in Syria, Iraq

A crossing at the Syrian-Turkish borders. (AFP)
A crossing at the Syrian-Turkish borders. (AFP)
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Türkiye Says it Kills 15 Kurdish Militants in Syria, Iraq

A crossing at the Syrian-Turkish borders. (AFP)
A crossing at the Syrian-Turkish borders. (AFP)

Türkiye said on Tuesday it had killed 13 Kurdish militants in northern Syria and two in Iraq, a sign that Ankara has pressed on with its campaign against fighters, some with possible links to US allies, since Donald Trump took office in the White House last week.

The Turkish defense ministry said the Kurdish fighters it had "neutralized" in Syria belonged to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia.

Türkiye considers the PKK and YPG to be identical; the United States considers them separate groups, having banned the PKK as terrorists but recruited the YPG as its main allies in Syria in the campaign against ISIS.

Türkiye has long called on Washington to withdraw support for the YPG, and has expressed hope that Trump would revise the policy inherited from the previous administration of President Joe Biden.

Tuesday's report of major clashes was the second within days: Türkiye also reported having killed 13 Kurdish militants on Sunday. Turkish forces and their allies in Syria have repeatedly fought with Kurdish militants there since the toppling of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad last month.

Türkiye has said that the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed umbrella group that includes the Kurdish YPG, must disarm or face a military intervention.

Under the Biden administration the United States has had 2,000 troops in Syria fighting alongside the SDF and YPG.