Nine protesters were shot dead Monday as Sudan’s ruling military tried to break up a sit-in protest outside army headquarters in Khartoum, a doctors’ committee close to demonstrators said.
It said the death toll "from the massacre today has risen to nine martyrs, with four new martyrs," since its last statement, the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors said on its Facebook page.
Sudan's ruling military council on Monday used force in a bid to break up a sit-in outside the Khartoum army headquarters, one of the main protest groups and witnesses said.
The military ousted president Omar al-Bashir in April after months of protests against his authoritarian rule, including a sit-in in front of army headquarters in the capital.
Thousands of protesters remained camped out in front of the site calling on the generals to cede power to a transitional authority.
"Now an attempt is taking place to disperse the sit-in at the headquarters of the people's armed forces by force by the military council," said the Sudanese Professionals Association, the group which spearheaded nationwide protests that started in December.
A witness living in the Burri neighbourhood in east Khartoum said he could "hear the sound of gunfire and I see a plume of smoke rising from the area of the sit-in."
Another resident of the area, which is near the sit-in, said he had seen forces in "police uniform" trying to expel the demonstrators.
The SPA said it amounted to a "bloody massacre", and called on Sudanese to take part in "total civil disobedience" to topple the military council and for people for take to the streets to protest.
Military rulers deny breaking up protest
Sudan's military rulers have denied trying to break up a protest sit-in "by force".
"We did not disperse the sit-in by force," said Shamseddine Kabbashi, spokesman for the ruling military council.
"The tents are there, and the youth are moving freely," he told Sky News Arabia.
