Sudan military calls for renewed talks after crackdown

Sudanese protest leaders on Wednesday rejected calls from the ruling military council to resume negotiations after security officials targeted a sit-in on Monday. The Sudan Doctors’ Committee said that 40 bodies were retrieved from the Nile River in Khartoum on Tuesday, bringing the death toll to at least 100 since the crackdown. Lt. Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan said the council is ready to resume negotiations with protest leaders with “no restriction.” He also vowed that those behind the violence would be held accountable. But Mohammed Yousef al-Mustafa, a spokesman for the Sudanese Professionals Association, said protest leaders reject the call for talks, noting the crackdown is still ongoing: “We will continue in our protests, resistance, strike, and total civil disobedience.”

In a joint statement, the United States, Norway, and Britain condemned the violence, warning it “has put the transition process in jeopardy.”

The Sudanese military, after months of protests, ousted longtime leader Omar al-Bashir on April 11. Protesters have held sit-ins to demand a majority-civilian transitional government.