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Protesters take to the streets to protest Sudan's military rule

Sudanese riot police fire teargas towards anti-coup protesters in Khartoum on February 8, 2023.   -  
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Sudan

Hundreds of Sudanese protesters took to the streets of Khartoum on Tuesday, demanding the ouster of the country's military rulers and rejecting a deal from late last year for the gradual transfer of power to civilian leaders.

Riot police fired tear gas at the protesters, and the security forces clashed with them.

"We are here today to assert to the Sudanese people that the revolution continues, and to say no, to military rule," protester Othman al-Hady said.

Sudan has been in turmoil since an uprising overthrew its longtime autocratic ruler Omar al-Bashir in 2019 and Tuesday's demonstration is the latest in a long string of protests.

A military coup in October 2021 abruptly ended a previous democratic transition agreement with protest leaders.

Earlier this week, one of Sudan’s top generals who led a coup against the country’s transitional government in 2021 called the takeover a "mistake."

In a speech delivered on Sunday, Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, who leads the country’s paramilitary known as the Rapid Support Forces, said he regretted the move.

Tuesday's protest was led by the Resistance Committees, a grassroots group that has steadfastly rejected any negotiations with Sudan’s military leaders, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and Gen. Dagalo.

The protest group has called for both men to be tried in court.

Last December, the two military leaders signed a ‘‘framework agreement" with Sudan's main pro-democracy group, the Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change.

But the agreement appears to offer only the vaguest outlines for how the country could resume its road to democracy.

Various other political parties and organisations also signed the deal.

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