Sudan protesters barricade streets, paralysing life in Khartoum 

Sudanese demonstrators set-up barricades that paralysed much of the capital Khartoum for the second day yesterday, in protests against the military coup, Reuters reported.

Sudan has been in political deadlock and economic turmoil since a coup in October ended a civilian-military power-sharing agreement. Military leaders have not appointed a prime minister.

Reuters quoted the head of the ruling council, General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan as saying that a PM would not be named before talks with political forces, an apparent softening of his position.

“When all the civilian forces sit together and come to a consensus between them, we are ready to sit and come to an understanding with them or to present them with whatever they need from the military side,” Al-Burhan said in an interview with Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat news site.

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While Burhan has said the coup was a necessary corrective measure to political infighting, civilian politicians accuse the military of seeking to advance allied politicians in order to consolidate control.

An ongoing UN and African Union-led dialogue process is the best chance for finding a way out of the crisis, he added.

Resistance committees that have led five months of protests reject talks with the military, who they want to quit politics. On Tuesday, they began a two-day campaign of blocking Khartoum’s streets with barricades made up of  bricks, rocks and tree branches.

“We will continue to barricade, strike, protest, and all forms of resistance until we bring down the coup. Our future is in democracy, not dictatorship,” Reuters quoted Mohammed Hassan, a 21-year-old student at a barricade in Omdurman, one of Khartoum’s sister cities, as saying.

Not everyone was supportive.

“Protests and blocking the roads will not bring down the government,” said 63-year-old store owner Ibrahim Salih, complaining of a slowdown to business.

Medics aligned with the protest movement have recorded at least 89 civilian deaths in security crackdowns on protests since the coup. Burhan said several suspects, some from among security forces, had been arrested.