\n Sudanese doctors protested Sunday against violent attacks by security forces targeting medical personnel during pro-democracy rallies following last year's military coup.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"During every protest they fire tear gas inside the hospital where I work,\" one doctor, Houda Ahmad, said at the rally in Khartoum.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"They even attack us inside the intensive care unit,\" she added at the rally, where medical personnel carried pictures of colleagues they said had been killed.\n<\/p>\n
\n The demonstration was the latest in the crisis-hit north-east African country, where protesters in the north also blockaded roads to vent their anger against an electricity price hike announced last week, and that has since been frozen.\n<\/p>\n
\n Sudan's October 25 coup led by military leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan derailed a fragile transition to civilian rule, that had started with the 2019 ouster of strongman Omar al-Bashir following youth-led mass protests.\n<\/p>\n
\n The military power grab has sparked an international outcry and triggered a new wave of street demonstrations, with another rally expected on Monday.\n<\/p>\n
\n During the turmoil of recent months, prime minister Abdulla Hamdok was detained and later reinstated but then quit, warning that Sudan was at a dangerous crossroads threatening its very \"survival\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Deadly crackdowns have claimed the lives of 64 protesters, according to pro-democracy medics. A police general has also been killed in the street violence that has rocked Sudan, one of the world's poorest countries.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Pandemic and poverty -\n<\/p>\n
\n The UN World Health Organization said last week there had been 11 confirmed attacks on Sudanese health facilities since November.\n<\/p>\n
\n The WHO said it was \"also aware of the interception of ambulances, medical personnel and patients during their attempts to seek safety\".\n<\/p>\n
\n It called for the attacks to \"stop now\", pointing out that they threaten healthcare services needed more than ever during the Covid pandemic.\n<\/p>\n
\n Covid-19 is a \"grave threat\" for Sudan, where 94 percent of the population has not been vaccinated, said the WHO.\n<\/p>\n
\n Sudan has confirmed 93,973 coronavirus infections and about 4,000 deaths. In September, it said 64 percent of about 1,000 health workers tested had been found to be Covid-positive.\n<\/p>\n
\n Sudan's 45 million people have also been dealing with a severe economic crisis and inflation approaching 400 percent.\n<\/p>\n
\n On Sunday, hundreds blocked key roads in the Northern Province, 350 kilometres (229 miles) from the capital, angered by recent news electricity prices would double -- a move that was then frozen, but not officially abolished.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"No vehicle will pass until the authorities have cancelled this increase, because it signs the death certificate of our agriculture,\" protester Hassan Idriss told AFP by phone.\n<\/p>\n
\n The protests that led to the 2019 ouster of Bashir had started after the government decided to triple the price of bread.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Hunger strike -\n<\/p>\n
\n During the recent protests, Sudan has also often shut down the internet and moved to limit reporting on the unrest.\n<\/p>\n
\n In the latest move it revoked the licence of Al Jazeera Mubasher, the live TV unit of the Qatar-based network, accusing it of \"unprofessional\" coverage of protests, the channel said.\n<\/p>\n
\n The United Nations is now seeking to organise talks involving political, military and social actors to resolve the crisis.\n<\/p>\n
\n UN special representative Volker Perthes announced the bid last week saying it was \"time to end the violence and enter into a comprehensive consultative process\".\n<\/p>\n
\n The mainstream faction of the Forces for Freedom and Change, the leading civilian pro-democracy group, said Sunday it would accept the offer of dialogue if it were to revive the transition to civilian rule.\n<\/p>\n
\n Sudan's military in April 2019 put an end Bashir's three-decade rule, leading to the arrest and imprisonment of the autocrat and many regime officials.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bashir is also wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.\n<\/p>\n
\n An imprisoned former foreign minister under Bashir, Ibrahim Ghandour, has begun a hunger strike along with several ex-regime officials, his family said Sunday.\n<\/p>\n
\n They will only end it \"once they have been freed or brought before an impartial tribunal\", his family said in a statement.\n<\/p>\n
\n The public prosecutor's office had recently ordered the release of several ex-officials, but Burhan instead ordered they stay in detention.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ghandour's family decried the \"interference in judicial affairs\".\n<\/p>\n
\n The protester movement however accuses Burhan, who was Bashir's ground forces commander, of helping old regime figures come back to power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sudanese doctors protested Sunday against violent attacks by security forces targeting medical personnel during pro-democracy rallies following last year's military coup. \"During every protest they fire tear gas inside the hospital where I work,\" one doctor, Houda Ahmad, said at the rally in Khartoum. \"They even attack us inside the intensive care unit,\" she added […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-86589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n