A Sudanese protester was killed late Wednesday as security forces moved to disperse demonstrations against the transitional government’s failure to address a deepening economic crisis, doctors close to the protesters said.
At least 14 protesters were also wounded and more suffered breathing difficulties as a result of the “extreme violence” used by police to snuff out the demonstrations in the capital Khartoum and its twin city Omdurman, the medics said.
Police fired live rounds as well as tear gas to clear the protesters from the streets and a 20-year-old died from a police bullet in an eastern district of Khartoum, they added.
Wednesday’s protests were called by the Sudanese Professionals Association, the same trade union alliance that spearheaded protests that led to the ouster of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir in April last year.
The large police and army presence prevented the mass turnout the SPA had called for but a few hundred activists answered the call to protest against plummeting living standards more than a year after the end of Bashir’s three decades in power.