Sudan military rulers suspend talks with protesters for 72 hours

At least 14 people have been wounded, some from gunfire, when Sudanese forces tried to remove demonstrators from central Khartoum, according to a group linked to the protest movement, while Sudan’s military rulers suspended talks with opposition leaders on the installation of civilian rule for at least 72 hours.

The violence has endangered negotiations between the two sides that had appeared to be on course to reaching a deal on forming a joint sovereign council designed to steer the country towards democracy for a three-year transition period until elections were called.

Both the military and the opposition blamed each other for Wednesday’s violence.

“We hold the military council responsible for attacking civilians,” said Amjad Farid, a spokesman for the Sudanese Professionals’ Association (SPA), which spearheaded months of protests that led to the military’s removal of President Omar Al-Bashir last month.

“They are using the same methods as the previous regime in dealing with rebels,” he told Reuters news agency.

But the head of Sudan’s Transitional Military Council (TMC), Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, accused the demonstrators of breaking an understanding on the de-escalation process while talks were under way and said protesters were disrupting life in the capital by blocking roads outside a protest zone in a deal that they had made with the military.

In a televised speech broadcast early on Thursday, al-Burhan read out a long list of what he described as violations of understandings that had been reached with protest leaders and said the TMC had decided to call off talks for three days “until a suitable atmosphere is created to complete an agreement”.

“We decided to suspend the negotiations over civilian rule for 72 hours to help prepare an atmosphere for completing the deal,” Burhan said, demanding that protesters dismantle roadblocks in Khartoum, open bridges connecting the capital and other regions and “stop provoking security forces”.

Burhan, the chief of the TMC that took power after overthrowing and jailing al-Bashir on April 11, justified the decision to suspend the crucial and final phase of negotiations by indicating that the overall security situation in the capital had deteriorated.

He said bridges, roads and a railway line had been closed and there was an “infiltration of armed elements among demonstrators who were shooting at security forces”.