Khartoum - Sudan's military rulers offered
to resume talks with opposition groups on Wednesday, two days
after security forces mounted a deadly raid on a protest camp,
but the opposition rejected the invitation.
Medics linked to the opposition said the death toll from
Monday's operation and subsequent unrest had risen to 108 and
that it was expected to increase. State news agency SUNA early
on Thursday put the number much lower, at 46, citing a health
ministry official.
The raid, which followed weeks of wrangling between the
ruling military council and opposition groups over who should
lead Sudan's transition to democracy, marked the worst outbreak
of violence since the army ousted President Omar al-Bashir in
April after months of protests against his 30-year rule.
The Transitional Military Council canceled all agreements it
had reached with the opposition immediately after the raid, but
it rowed back on Wednesday amid mounting international criticism
of the violence.
"We in the military council extend our hand for negotiations
without shackles except the interests of the homeland," its
head, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, said on state
TV.
But a Sudanese alliance of protesters and opposition groups
rejected the offer, saying the military could not be trusted.
"Today the council invited us to dialogue and at the same
time it is imposing fear on citizens in the streets," Madani
Abbas Madani, a leader of the Declaration of Freedom and Change
Forces (DFCF), told Reuters.
Madani said Burhan's invitation had come before the arrest
of one of the opposition alliance members, Yasir Arman, deputy
head of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N)
rebel group.
Lieutenant General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the Sudanese Transitional Military Council, TMC, makes a broadcast announcement in Khartoum. Picture: Sudan TV via AP
GUNFIRE, STREET BLOCKADES
Opposition medics said 40 bodies that had been pulled out of
the Nile on Tuesday were among the 108 killed. The bodies were
taken to an unknown destination by pickup trucks belonging to
the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, the medics said. Reuters
was not immediately able to verify the report.
A military council spokesman could not immediately be
reached for comment, but the council said on Twitter that some
Rapid Support Forces members had been attacked and that people
had put on their uniforms to impersonate them in an attempt to
harm their reputation.
The mood in the capital, Khartoum, remained tense on
Wednesday, with demonstrators blocking streets in several
districts. Gunfire rang out in the distance.
Most shops were shuttered on what would usually have been a
bustling Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday. Minor protests erupted
outside mosques after Eid prayers, but there were no reports of
significant clashes with security forces.
The deputy head of the military council, General Mohamed
Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti, said in a televised
speech that it had launched "an urgent and transparent
investigation" into the recent violence.
"Any person who crossed boundaries has to be punished," he
added.
The military has denied trying to clear the sit-in protest
outside the defence ministry on Monday. Its spokesman said
forces moved in to deal with disruptive groups nearby and the
violence spread from there.
Saudi Arabia, which has close ties to Sudan's military
council, said on Wednesday it was watching developments with
great concern and called for more dialogue.
US national security adviser John Bolton said in a Twitter
post that Monday's violence by Sudan's security forces was
"abhorrent" and demanded that the military council facilitate
moves towards a civilian-led government.
The main protest organizer, the Sudanese Professionals
Association, has called for an international committee to
investigate Monday's deaths in what it branded a "massacre".
Several airlines have canceled flights to Khartoum,
including Bahrain's Gulf Air, flydubai and EgyptAir.
Sudan has been rocked by unrest since December, when anger
over rising bread prices and cash shortages broke into sustained
protests against Bashir that culminated in the military removing
him after three decades in office.