Hundreds of thousands of Sudanese protesters have rallied to mark three years since the end of mass demonstrations that led to the ousting of the dictator Omar al-Bashir, as fears mount for the country s democratic transition.
Security forces fired teargas at a large crowd of protesters near the republican palace in Khartoum, chanting slogans against the military chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who led a coup on 25 October.
The people want the downfall of Burhan, protesters said.
The generals had initially detained the prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok, for weeks under effective house arrest, but reinstated him on 21 November.
The move alienated many of Hamdok's pro-democracy supporters who dismissed it as a cloak of legitimacy for Burhan's coup.
Hamdok, who has argued that he wants to avoid further bloodshed, warned on Saturday of the country's slide toward the abyss and urged restraint from the protesters. Hamdok said that we were facing a sizeable regression in the path of our revolution that threatens the security of the nation, its unity and stability.
The protest organisers have vowed in a slogan: No negotiation, no partnership, and no legitimacy. Previous protests against the military takeover have been forcibly dispersed by the security forces. According to the Independent Doctors Committee, at least 45 people have been killed and scores more wounded across the country.
On Sunday, authorities closed bridges linking Khartoum with its twin city of Omdurman, but large crowds still gathered.
The numbers are huge and security forces can't control them, said Mohamed Hamed, who saw the protests in Omdurman.
The country's history has a particular resonance for Sudan on 19 December. It was the day in 2018 when thousands of people launched mass protests that ended Bashir's three decades of power, but it was also the day in 1955 when Sudanese lawmakers declared independence from British colonial rule.
After Bashir left a joint military-civilian transitional government took power, but the troubled alliance was shattered by Burhan's power grab.
The coup has put obstacles in the way of the democratic transition and has given the military complete control over politics and the economy, Ashraf Abdelaziz, chief editor of the independent al-Jarida newspaper, told AFP.
Sudan's military dominates lucrative companies, specializing in everything from agriculture to infrastructure projects.
The prime minister said last year that 80% of the state's resources were outside the finance ministry's control. The security apparatus has won over political institutions. Political action is the driving force behind the democratic transition, according to Abdelaziz.
Khaled Omar, a minister in the ousted government, said the coup was a disaster but also an opportunity to correct the deficiencies of the previous political arrangement with the army.
He warned that anything could happen over the next few months with the military still in power. If the main political actors don't get their act together and the military establishment doesn't distance itself from politics, all scenarios are on the table, Omar said.
The 21 November agreement also set July 2023 as the date for Sudan's first free elections since 1986.
Hamdok said he had partnered with the military to stop the bloodshed that resulted from its crackdown on protests, and so as to not squander the gains of the last two years, as the political turbulence in Khartoum rekindles conflicts in Sudan's far-flung regions that Hamdok had made a priority to resolve.
The main conflict in Darfur subsided last year in a peace deal signed with key rebel groups, but over the past two months the region remains awash with weapons and more than 250 people have been killed in ethnic clashes.
Some of the Arab militias Bashir's government used as a counter-insurgency force in its infamous campaign against minority ethnic rebels in the early 2000s have been integrated into the security apparatus, but critics say the deal did nothing to bring them to account.