KHARTOUM, July 1, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - Sudanese protesters rallied again Friday 
and security forces fired tear gas at them, a day after a mass demonstration 
drawing tens of thousands was met with the deadliest violence so far this 
year.

Hundreds of activists massed near the presidential palace in the capital 
Khartoum, after at least nine people were killed during Thursday's rallies 
against a military takeover led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan last 
October.

"The people want to bring down Burhan," some protesters chanted while others, 
carrying photos of people killed in months of protest-related violence, 
yelled: "We call for retribution!"

The death toll from protest-related violence has reached 113 since the coup, 
with the latest fatality reported Friday after a demonstrator died from 
wounds sustained at a June 24 rally, according to pro-democracy medics.

The activists demand the restoration of the transition to civilian rule, that 
was launched shortly after the 2019 ouster of veteran president Omar al-
Bashir but which has been derailed since. 

The latest crackdown defied calls for calm from the international community.

"Tens of thousands of Sudanese took to the street today to demand democracy. 
We support their aspirations," said the US State Department's Bureau for 
African Affairs on Twitter.

"We condemn in the strongest terms the use of live fire by security forces 
against civilians. We offer our condolences to those who lost family 
members."

The "violence needs to end," demanded UN special representative Volker 
Perthes.

Sudan's police meanwhile accused protesters of wounding 96 police and 129 
military officers, "some critically", on Thursday, as well as damaging 
vehicles and starting fires.

- 'Excessive force' -

Last year's coup plunged Sudan into deepening political and economic turmoil, 
which has seen rising consumer prices and life-threatening food shortages.

It has also sparked near-weekly protests, as well as ethnic clashes. 

The United Nations, the African Union and regional bloc IGAD have tried to 
facilitate talks between the generals and civilians, but mediation efforts 
have been boycotted by the main civilian factions.

On Friday, the three bodies jointly condemned the violence and "the use of 
excessive force by security forces and lack of accountability for such 
actions, despite repeated commitments by authorities".

Norway's ambassador to Sudan also condemned reports of "torture, sexual 
violence and inhumane treatment".

"We request lawyers' access to detainees and their access to health," 
ambassador Therese Loken Gheziel wrote on Twitter. "Protection from torture 
is indispensable".

The protests on Thursday came on the anniversary of a 1989 coup that toppled 
Sudan's last elected civilian government and ushered in three decades of 
iron-fisted rule by Islamist-backed Bashir.

It was also the anniversary of 2019 protests demanding that the generals who 
had ousted Bashir in a palace coup earlier that year cede power to civilians.

Those protests led to the formation of the civilian-military transitional 
government that was toppled in last year's coup.