KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Workers at Sudan’s state petroleum company (Sudapet) will join a nationwide civil disobedience movement declared by trade unions in response to the military’s overthrow of the government, the Sudanese Professionals Association said on Wednesday.
A group of neighbourhood committees in Khartoum have announced a schedule of further barricades and protests leading to what it said would be a “march of millions” on Saturday.
“We announce joining the civil disobedience in support of the people’s decision backing the civil democratic transformation and until this demand is achieved,” the SPA, a group of trade unions, said in a statement.
Sudan’s armed forces chief on Tuesday defended the military’s seizure of power, saying he had ousted the government to avoid civil war, while protesters took to the streets to demonstrate against the takeover.
Monday’s coup brought a halt to Sudan’s transition to democracy, two years after a popular uprising toppled long-ruling Islamist autocrat Omar al-Bashir.
On Tuesday evening, the SPA said it had reports of attacks by coup forces on protesters’ sites in the capital Khartoum and other cities. It said they had fired shots and tried to break through barricades.
(Reporting by Alaa Swilam; writing by Nadine Awadalla; editing by Jason Neely and Angus MacSwan)
