Doctors in Sudan have said four people have been shot dead and a large number injured by the security forces during pro-democracy protests in the capital, Khartoum.
Large crowds have gathered in several cities calling on the military to leave politics.
Bridges in the capital have been blocked and internet services have been cut, in an effort to stop people marching.
Since last October, when military leaders toppled the transitional government in a coup, frequent mass rallies have been held.
Sudanese security forces have responded violently leaving more than 100 protesters dead.
“Did I just survive a massacre?” asked a young Sudanese man when he answered my call not long after security forces had opened fire on protesters in downtown Khartoum.
Known by his Twitter name Bashy, he told how one of seven people had died last Monday afternoon in the capital.
“I was filming the protesters and walking when a bullet penetrated his chest; he died in front of me. That could have been me!”
In his mid-twenties, and usually with a smile on his face, Bashy has been protesting on the streets for the past three months.
Like many of his contemporaries, he was furious that the military seized power last October, just over two years into an agreement between the generals and a civilian coalition to share power.
Life had been improving and the economic crisis easing as civilian Prime Minister, Abdalla Hamdok, brought Sudan from the cold, following sanctions imposed on the country during the long rule of Omar al-Bashir, accused of using the country to sponsor terrorism.
The former president’s military allies ousted him in April 2019 in the wake of mass protests, but they then showed their reluctance to share power with those on the streets when they turned their guns on them in a devastating massacre two months later.
The outcry that followed forced the generals to agree to the transition – but as many suspected, the military was never happy with the arrangement, and the latest coup, they say, had proved them right.
Bashy, who has been on the front lines of the recent demonstrations documenting the rallies and marches on his social media feeds, said those on the neighbourhood committees coordinating the fight back on the streets were mainly young. -BBC
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