Sudan: Families of killed anti-coup protesters mourn

The family of Mohammed Abdel Sallam, a young Sudanese man who died after being shot during protests against the military takeover last week, vowed Thursday to continue voicing their dissent.

"After Mido (Mohammed Abdel Salam) died, honestly, it made me think I need to go out as well," said Sallam's mother Mahasen Abdullah Abuelgasim.

Sallam was shot in the chest after taking to the streets in his local neighborhood Kafouri, near the capital Khartoum, just hours after Sudan's military took power.

The coup started when Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan , head of the Sudanese military, dissolved the transitional government and detained many other government officials and political leaders.

Abuelgasim says at first, she was scared for her other children to go out to protest again while her son was dying in hospital, but that feeling quickly dissipated when he died.

Mido's brother Anwar, who carried Mido to the hospital, said he too was eager to demonstrate again.

"We are not going to stay at home and (let) them go out and die," he said.

The coup, widely condemned by the U.S. and the West, came more than two years after a popular uprising forced the military’s removal of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir and his Islamist government in April 2019.

Abuelgasim urged the international community to stand with Sudan.