Sudanese security forces fired live ammunition and tear gas on Saturday to disperse protesters denouncing the military's tightening grip on the country, killing at least five and wounding several, activists said. The violence came as thousands of pro-democracy protesters yet again took to the streets across Sudan to rally against the military's takeover last month, the AP reports. The coup has drawn international criticism and massive protests in the streets of the capital of Khartoum and elsewhere in the country.
The killings took place in Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman, and the dead included four killed by gunshots and one who died from a tear gas canister, according to the Sudan Doctors Committee. Several other protesters were wounded, including from gunshots, it said. The rallies, called by the pro-democracy movement, came two days after coup leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan reappointed himself head of the Sovereign Council, Sudan's interim governing body. The move angered the pro-democracy alliance and frustrated the US and other countries that have urged the generals to reverse their coup.
Earlier Saturday, protesters in Khartoum neighborhoods waved Sudanese flags and posters of deposed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, who has been under house arrest since the coup. They chanted "civilian, civilian," a reference to their main demand that the generals hand over power to civilians. Hamza Baloul, the information minister in the deposed government, took part in Saturday's rallies following his release from detention earlier this month. There should be "no negotiations with the coup leaders," he told the protesters in Khartoum. "The Sudanese people insist on a civilian government."
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