Sudanese demonstrators demand an end to military rule

Thousands of Sudanese demonstrators took to the streets of the capital, Khartoum, on Thursday to demand an end to military rule and claim better living conditions.

Last month, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan pledged in a televised address to step aside and make way for Sudanese factions to agree on a civilian government.

Civilian leaders have denounced the move describing it as a "ruse".

"I see these initiatives as trying to divert people away from the effort that the resistance committees have been doing throughout these past months. The committees have put together charters, even committees in the region. The main solution is for all political forces to gather around the charters prepared by the committees, support it, and the committees become the leaders of any initiative to go forward. Any initiative that is not led by the committees will not make headway", demands protester Nidal Ibrahim.

Military crackdowns on nearly weekly protests have so far killed 116 people according to pro-democracy medics.

Another demonstrator, Benz Rashid, added "any of these initiatives does not represent us as resistance committees in any way. We put these people in the lead to bring us justice and none of them did and we will only bring justice through the streets".

Earlier this month, deputy army chief and paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo admitted that last October's coup had failed to bring about change in Sudan.