Relenting protests persist in Sudan as gov't continue crackdown

Hundreds of Sudanese protesters took to the streets of the capital on Thursday, marching towards the house of 23-year-old Thabit Hussein, who was killed during clashes near the presidential palace earlier this week.

Hussein was one of three people killed during Monday's protests, bringing the death toll among protesters to at least 76 since the military takeover on Oct. 25.

Activists said security forces fired live ammunition and tear gas to disperse protesters in several locations in the capital, including around the fortified presidential palace.

Hussein's mother, Shadia Ahmad, urged de-facto Sudanese leader Abdel-Fattah Burhan "to stop the bloodshed, to set and negotiate with the youths to see what they need exactly," because, she added, "negotiation is the only solution for the problem."

The relentless protests have rocked the country since the military coup three months ago.

Fresh crackdowns on protesters will likely complicate U.N. efforts to find a way out of the country's crisis.

The coup has upended Sudan's transition to democratic rule after three decades of repression and international isolation under autocratic President Omar al-Bashir.

The African nation has been on a fragile path to democracy since a popular uprising forced the military to remove al-Bashir and his Islamist government in April 2019.

Sudan has been politically paralyzed since the coup, with the turmoil worsening since the resignation this month of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, who complained of failure to reach a compromise between the generals and the pro-democracy movement.

Hamdok had been reinstated in November in a deal with the military that angered the pro-democracy movement.

The U.N. mission has in the past two weeks been consulting with rival Sudanese factions in efforts to bridge the gap between the generals and the pro-democracy movement.