Sudan braces for protests 3 yrs after revolution

Khartoum: Opposition activists in Sudan were set for new protests Sunday to mark the third anniversary of mass demonstrations that ended the dictatorship of president Omar al-Bashir as fears mount for the democratic transition.

Political parties and neighbourhood committees said they were mobilising thousands of supporters to demonstrate against General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the bloody crackdown he has led since his October 25 coup.

"No negotiation, no partnership and no legitimacy," is the slogan adopted by the organisers, who are bitterly opposed to a new partnership deal that civilian Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok struck with the military while still under effective house arrest last month.

Hamdok was reinstated under the November 21 agreement, which also set July 2023 as the date for Sudan's first free elections since 1986.

But it alienated many of Hamdok's pro-democracy supporters who dismissed it as a gift to the generals that provided a cloak of legitimacy for Burhan's coup.

Previous protests against the military takeover have been forcibly dispersed by the security forces.