Sudanese authorities barricade Khartoum ahead of 19 December protests

December 18, 2021 (KHARTOUM) – Ahead of protests to commemorate the third anniversary of the December revolution, Sudanese authorities on Saturday evening have closed all the main gates and roads leading to Khartoum.

Since Saturday afternoon hundreds of vehicles reached Khartoum from several states in preparation for anti-protests on Sunday.

Processions from Aljazeera, Nile River and northern have reached Khartoum where the Resistance Committees prepared houses and schools to host them. Also, the Unionist Alliance opened its premises in the capital for the protesters from outside Khartoum state.

Other Resistances committees in Gedaref, Kassala and El North Kordofan states decided to hold their rallies in their states. In Aljazeera state, the Madani committee decided to hold their protest in their home town and not follow others cities that moved to Khartoum.

The Forces for Freedom and Change, the Sudanese Professionals Association joined the Resistance Committees calling on their supporters to join Sunday’s rallies “to defeat the 25-October coup”.

To anticipate the expected huge protests, the security authorities in Khartoum closed bridges linking the three towns of the capital Omdurman-Khartoum, Khartoum-Khartoum North and Khartoum North-Omdurman.

concrete blocks and barbed wire have been placed on Airport Street, while all the roads leading to the army general command have been closed.

Vehicles loaded with troops have also been deployed in the capital.

After the 21-November agreement between Prime Minister Hamdok and the coup leader al-Burhan, the security forces gradually stopped the use do gunshots and tear gas against protesters.

On Saturday, the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors (CCSD) stated that the death toll of protesters killed after the coup has reached 45 people.

The independent group said 43 were killed by gunshots while two others by police wielding-batons.

For its part, the SPLM-N leader Abdel Aziz al-Hilu issued a statement expressing his movement support to the popular uprising against the military coup.

Al-Hilu said that the SPLM-N struggles for the same slogans of the December revolution (Freedom, Peace, Justice) and a secular decentralized state in Sudan.

“We in the SPLM-N are convinced that there is an unwritten covenant between us (…) to achieve the New Sudan project; each according to his ability and until achieving the radical change” he stressed.

(ST)