"A commission of inquiry formed by the prosecutor general of Sudan to investigate the events near the military command headquarters [in Khartoum] began operating and is interrogating several witnesses," the source said, adding that the investigation will be completed shortly.

READ MORE: Sudan Health Ministry Denies Protest Death Toll of Over 100, Claims 46 Killed

On Wednesday, the Sudanese Transitional Military Council (TMC)’s head, Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan, said it was recommended that the Office of the Prosecutor General conducts an impartial investigation into the armed dispersal of the protesters' camp in Khartoum, during which the security forces used firearms and killed 14 people.

On Monday, Sudanese security forces attacked a sit-in protest camp near the military headquarters in Khartoum, firing at the protesters and killing 14.

According to the opposition Central Committee of Sudan Doctors, as many as 60 people were killed in the clashes, hundreds were wounded. Protesters have been demanding the military resign and hands power over to civilian rule since 6 April.

On Tuesday, Burhan held a television address in which he announced the termination of negotiations with the opposition. He called for general elections to be held within nine months and announced forming an interim caretaker government to run the country until then.

Long-standing popular protests in Sudan culminated in a military coup on 11 April, when then-President Omar Bashir was overthrown and detained after almost 30 years in power.

The TMC took over and pledged to organize new presidential elections within two years. Protesters have remained in the streets demanding that the military yield power to a civilian authority. </s> Death toll from clashes at Sudan rallies climbs to 10

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — A leading Sudanese activist says at least 10 people were killed in clashes with security forces during mass demonstrations demanding a transition to civilian rule.

Nazim Sirraj told The Associated Press on Monday that three bodies were found next to a school in Omdurman, the twin city of the capital, Khartoum, after the rallies the day before. He says the three were shot dead.

Authorities said late Sunday that at least seven people were killed and nearly 200 wounded during the demonstrations. The ruling military council blamed protest leaders for the deaths after they diverted the routes of their marches.

The protesters are calling on the military to hand over power to civilians following the coup that ousted longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in April. </s> CAIRO (AP) - Activists behind anti-government demonstrations in Sudan say security forces have killed at least seven people, including a military officer, in another attempt to break up a sit-in outside the military headquarters in the capital.

Sarah Abdel-Jaleel, spokeswoman for the Sudanese Professionals Association, says clashes erupted early on Tuesday between security forces and protesters who have been camping out in front of the complex in Khartoum since the weekend.

The new deaths brought the total number of people killed by the security forces since Saturday to 15.

Abdel-Jaleel says at least 30 protesters were wounded in the violence. A government spokesman didn't respond to calls seeking comment.

The demonstrations began in December over an economic crisis but quickly escalated into calls for an end to President Omar al-Bashir's 30-year rule.

Protesters rally in front of the military headquarters in the capital Khartoum, Sudan, Monday, April 8, 2019. Organizers behind anti-government demonstrations in Sudan said security forces attempted to break up a sit-in outside the military headquarters. A spokeswoman for the Sudanese Professionals Association told The Associated Press that clashes erupted early Monday between security forces and protesters, who have been camped out in front of the complex in Khartoum since Saturday. (AP Photo)

Protesters rally in front of the military headquarters in the capital Khartoum, Sudan, Monday, April 8, 2019. Organizers behind anti-government demonstrations in Sudan said security forces attempted to break up a sit-in outside the military headquarters. A spokeswoman for the Sudanese Professionals Association told The Associated Press that clashes erupted early Monday between security forces and protesters, who have been camped out in front of the complex in Khartoum since Saturday. (AP Photo)

A protesters holds up a poster showing depicting Mahjoub El Taj Mahjoub, a second year student at the Faculty of Medicine of El Razi University, who was allegedly tortured and beaten to death by the National Intelligence and Security Service in January, at a rally in front of the military headquarters in the capital Khartoum, Sudan, Monday, April 8, 2019. Organizers behind anti-government demonstrations in Sudan said security forces attempted to break up a sit-in outside the military headquarters. (AP Photo)

Protesters rally in front of the military headquarters in the capital Khartoum, Sudan, Monday, April 8, 2019. Organizers behind anti-government demonstrations in Sudan said security forces attempted to break up a sit-in outside the military headquarters. A spokeswoman for the Sudanese Professionals Association told The Associated Press that clashes erupted early Monday between security forces and protesters, who have been camped out in front of the complex in Khartoum since Saturday. (AP Photo)

A protester holds up a police shield at a rally in front of the military headquarters in the capital Khartoum, Sudan, Monday, April 8, 2019. Organizers behind anti-government demonstrations in Sudan said security forces attempted to break up a sit-in outside the military headquarters. A spokeswoman for the Sudanese Professionals Association told The Associated Press that clashes erupted early Monday between security forces and protesters, who have been camped out in front of the complex in Khartoum since Saturday. (AP Photo) </s> Sudanese protest leaders have “totally” rejected the military’s offer for an unconditional resumption of talks as opposition-linked doctors said the death toll since a violent dispersal of a protest camp in the capital jumped to more than 100.

The number of those killed rose on Wednesday after the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors said 40 bodies were pulled from the Nile River and taken to an unknown location by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The committee said the bodies were retrieved from the river on Tuesday, a day after security forces stormed the weeks-long sit-in outside the military headquarters in the capital, Khartoum.

It said the number of those killed was at least 108 but warned that it was likely to rise. More than 500 people were wounded.

In the early hours of Thursday, however, state news agency SUNA cited a health official as saying that the death toll did not exceed 46.

The raid on Monday marked a pivotal moment in the weeks-long struggle between the powerful military council and opposition groups over who should lead Sudan‘s transition to democracy following the removal of President Omar al-Bashir in April.

Immediately after the crackdown, the military council cancelled all agreements it had reached with the opposition, but on Wednesday it rowed back amid mounting international criticism of the violence.

General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the military council, said the body was ready to resume negotiations and that there would be “no restrictions” in talks with the leaders behind the months-long street protests.

“We in the military council extend our hand for negotiations without shackles except the interests of the homeland,” he said on state television.

But a Sudanese alliance of protesters and opposition groups rejected the offer, saying the military could not be trusted.

“Today the council invited us to dialogue and at the same time it is imposing fear on citizens in the streets,” Madani Abbas Madani, a leader of the Freedom and Change alliance, told Reuters news agency.

Mohammed Yousef al-Mustafa, spokesman for the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), which is also part of the alliance, said the protesters “totally reject” al-Burhan’s call.

“This call is not serious,” al-Mustafa told The Associated Press. “Burhan and those under him have killed the Sudanese and are still doing it. Their vehicles patrol the streets, firing at people.

“We will continue in our protests, resistance, strike and total civil disobedience,” he added.

Khartoum remained tense on Wednesday, with demonstrators blocking streets in several districts as gunfire rang out in the distance.

The RSF, which protesters accuse of carrying out Monday’s attack, “are all around on the main streets, and protesters are burning tyres and still blocking the roads,” said Hajooj, a protester.

“Moving around the capital is very hard and we are hearing gunfire. The RSF are stopping people, checking pockets, mobile phones and looting people. So it’s not safe. There’s also been reports of rapes and beatings. The internet has been cut so protesters are not able to share live videos and share information,” he told Al Jazeera from Khartoum.

A senior Sudanese rebel leader who returned from exile after al-Bashir’s overthrow was also arrested at his house, a spokesman for his organisation said.

Yasir Arman, the deputy head of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) group, was seized from the house where he was staying in Khartoum by armed men who arrived in pick-up trucks and surrounded the building, the spokesman said.

“They took him without clarifying to us the place (they would take him to) and said they were from the National Intelligence and Security Service,” said Mubarak Ardol, adding that the armed men “beat” Arman and his assistant and destroyed surveillance cameras outside the house.

Meanwhile, most shops were shuttered on what would usually have been a bustling Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday. Minor protests erupted outside mosques after Eid prayers but there were no reports of significant clashes with security forces.

The deputy head of the military council, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemeti, said in a televised speech that it had launched “an urgent and transparent investigation” into the recent violence.

“Any person who crossed boundaries has to be punished,” said Hemeti, who also heads the RSF.

The military has denied trying to clear the sit-in protest, saying its forces moved in to deal with disruptive groups nearby and the violence spread from there.

The SPA has called for an international committee to investigate Monday’s deaths in what it branded a “massacre”.

The last previously reported death toll stood at 40 but the doctors’ committee said security forces killed at least 10 people on Wednesday in Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman. That came after another 10 people were killed on Tuesday, including five in the White Nile state, three in Omdurman and two in Khartoum’s Bahri neighbourhood. The total of 101 includes the 40 bodies pulled from the river.

The doctors’ committee also said that at least 326 people have been wounded in clashes in the past two days and that it feared the final death toll would be much higher.

David Shinn, a former senior US diplomat in Sudan, said the prospect for talks was dim as long as the violence continued.

“You cannot have successful negotiations between the protest groups and the military so long as the security forces are killing fellow Sudanese. This has to stop. Until it does, I don’t see any prospect for meaningful negotiations,” he told Al Jazeera.

Saudi Arabia, which has close ties to Sudan’s military council, said on Wednesday it was watching developments with great concern and called for more dialogue.

US National Security Adviser John Bolton said in a Twitter post that Monday’s violence by Sudan’s security forces was “abhorrent” and demanded that the military council facilitate moves towards a civilian-led government.

The United Nations Security Council met on Tuesday but failed to agree on a common position.

Afterwards, eight European countries said in a joint statement that they “condemn the violent attacks in Sudan by Sudanese security services against civilians” and that the military council’s timeframe for elections was “too short”.

The European statement added: “We call for an agreed transfer of power to a civilian-led government as demanded by the people of Sudan.

Several airlines have cancelled flights to Khartoum, including Bahrain’s Gulf Air, flydubai and EgyptAir.

Sudan has been rocked by unrest since December, when anger over rising bread prices and cash shortages broke into sustained protests against al-Bashir that culminated in the military removing him after three decades in office. </s> Sudan's pro-democracy leaders vowed Thursday to press their campaign of civil disobedience until the ruling military council is ousted and killers of protesters are brought to justice, following a crackdown this week that killed scores of people.

The pledge comes after new clashes brought the death toll in three days of the military crackdown to 108. On Wednesday, troops were seen pulling 40 bodies of victims, slain by Sudanese security forces, from the Nile River in Khartoum and taking them away.

The Sudan Doctors Committee, one of the protest groups, said it was not known where they were taken. The committee also said more than 500 have been wounded in the crackdown.

The Sudanese Professionals Association, an umbrella of union groups that has been behind months of rallies that forced the military to oust longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in April, urged people to block main roads and bridges to "paralyze public life" across the country in retaliation for the military's crackdown.

The crackdown began with a violent dispersal of the protest movement's main sit-in camp, outside the military headquarters in the capital, Khartoum, on Monday.

"Our success depends on our full adherence to peaceful protests, no matter how hard the criminal militias seek to drag us into violence," the association said in a Facebook statement on Thursday.

Word about the retrieval of the bodies from the Nile came as Sudan's ruling general called for a resumption of negotiations with the protest leaders, which they promptly rejected. They said the generals cannot be serious about talks while troops keep killing protesters.

The protesters said that instead, they would continue their demonstrations and strikes seeking to pressure the military into handing over power to a civilian authority.

Meanwhile, Sudan's military-controlled health ministry is disputing the death toll of 108 killed in the crackdown. The ministry's undersecretary, Soliman Abdel Gaber, issued a statement insisting that only 46 people died in this week's violence.

Since Monday's violent dispersal of the protest sit-in outside the military headquarters in Khartoum, violent clashes have erupted in other parts of Sudan.

The protest leaders said there were attacks in 13 cities and towns this week perpetrated by security forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which grew out of the Janjaweed militias used by al-Bashir's government to suppress the Darfur insurgency in the 2000s, a campaign that prompted charges of genocide against its perpetrators.

Before Monday's crackdown began, the military and protest leaders had for weeks negotiated the makeup of a transitional council meant to run the country until elections. The protesters demanded civilians dominate the council, which the generals resisted.

After the crackdown, the military suspended the talks and canceled all agreed-on points. It also announced the military would form a government and hold elections within seven to nine months.

But the head of the military council, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, then on Wednesday abruptly announced the generals were prepared to resume negotiations— an offer the protesters immediately turned down.

In Moscow, a top diplomat said Russia — which has largely stayed on the sidelines of the crisis in Sudan — opposes "any foreign intervention" and believes a compromise is needed.

Mikhail Bogdanov, chief of the foreign ministry's Middle East desk, told local news agencies that Russian diplomats are in touch with all political players in Sudan, including the opposition. Bogdanov visited Khartoum earlier this year. </s> By BASSAM HATOUM and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — At least 40 bodies of people slain by Sudanese security forces were pulled from the Nile River in the capital of Khartoum, organizers of pro-democracy demonstrations said Wednesday, and new clashes brought the death toll in three days of the ruling military’s crackdown to 100.

Word about the retrieval of the bodies came as Sudan’s ruling general called for a resumption of negotiations with the protest leaders, which they promptly rejected. They said the generals cannot be serious about talks while troops keep killing protesters.

A spokesman for the protesters said they instead would continue their demonstrations and strikes to pressure the military to hand over power to a civilian authority.

The reported discovery of the bodies in the Nile suggested that Monday’s violent dispersal of the protest movement’s main sit-in camp, outside the military’s headquarters, was even bloodier than initially believed. The attack on the camp was led by a notorious paramilitary unit called the Rapid Support Forces, along with other troops who waded into the camp, opening fire and beating protesters.

During the mayhem, the protesters’ Doctors Committee said witnesses reported seeing bodies loaded into military vehicles to be dumped into the river. The camp was not far from the Blue Nile, just upstream from where it joins the White Nile and then flows north through Sudan and Egypt to the Mediterranean.

The committee said in a statement that a day earlier, the RSF was seen pulling 40 bodies from the river and taking them away. It said it was not known where they were taken.

One activist, Amal al-Zein, said the number could be even higher. She said activists and private citizens had pulled dozens more bodies from the Nile in areas near the sit-in and took them to a hospital morgue.

“Some bodies have wounds from bullets, others seemed to have beaten and thrown in the Nile,” she said.

On Monday, the Doctors Committee put the death toll from the crackdown at 40. Another 10 were reported killed in clashes Tuesday in Khartoum and Omdurman, the capital’s twin city across the Nile, and farther south in the White Nile state.

At least 10 more were killed in clashes Wednesday, the Doctors Committee said, with at least 326 people wounded over the past two days. The committee said it feared the final death toll would be much higher.

Protests continued in Omdurman and Khartoum’s central Bahri and Buri district, where clashes erupted with the RSF, activists said.

“In Buri, there were lots of shootings and tear gas,” said Hashim al-Sudani, an activist. “They tried to force people into narrow streets” to beat them.

The crackdown has turned a tense but relatively peaceful standoff between the military and the protest movement over the country’s future into a bloody confrontation that threatens to escalate.

Months of protests succeeded in forcing the ouster in April of strongman Omar al-Bashir, who had ruled Sudan for 30 years as head of a repressive state backed by the military and Islamists. When the generals took power after his fall, the protesters stayed in the streets, saying they wanted an end to military rule as well.

For weeks, the military and protest leaders negotiated over the makeup of a transitional council meant to run the country for three years before elections. Protesters demand that civilians dominate the council, but the generals resisted.

After Monday’s crackdown, protest leaders suspended negotiations. The head of the military council, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, then canceled any agreed-upon points from the talks and said the military would form a government to hold elections within seven to nine months.

On Wednesday, however, Burhan abruptly announced that the generals were prepared to resume negotiations with “no restrictions.”

“We open our hands to negotiations with all parties … for the interest of the nation,” Burhan said, adding that those responsible for the attack on the sit-in camp would be held accountable.

The reasons for his about-face were not immediately clear. But the offer could cause divisions within the protest movement, where some factions may be open to returning to the table.

The military council’s deputy head, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo — who also leads the RSF, the force protesters blame for the bulk of killings — said in televised comments that a “fair and independent” investigation had been launched into the violent breakup of the Khartoum sit-in and other clashes.

Dagalo, better known by his nickname Hemedti, promised “fast results” and said anyone who “crossed boundaries” will be punished.

The RSF grew out of the Janjaweed militias used by the government to suppress the Darfur insurgency in the 2000s, a campaign that prompted charges of genocide against its perpetrators. Human rights groups said that under Dagalo in more recent years, the RSF carried out rapes, torture and killings of Darfur civilians.

The Sudanese Professionals Association, which has spearheaded the demonstrations and since Monday has called for the ouster of the military council, said protesters “totally reject” Burhan’s offer.

“This call is not serious,” SPA spokesman Mohammed Yousef al-Mustafa told The Associated Press. “Burhan and those under him have killed the Sudanese and are still doing it. Their vehicles patrol the streets, firing at people.”

“We will continue in our protests, resistance, strike and total civil disobedience,” he said.

But the head of Sudan’s leading opposition political party, the Umma Party, seemed to suggest the movement needed to discuss its position. Sadeq al-Mahdi urged all factions in the protest movement to meet urgently to work out “how to bring the transfer of power” to a civilian council.

He did not urge a return to negotiations but criticized some in the movement for “unjustified escalation” — an apparent reference to strikes called by the SPA in previous weeks — and said he had expected the military to escalate as well. He said the military council had played a “critical role in the revolution” by ousting al-Bashir and now must admit responsibility for Monday’s attack and hold those behind it accountable.

Al-Mahdi headed the last elected government in Sudan, preceding al-Bashir. His Umma Party is one of a number of long-established opposition parties that joined the protest movement, bringing their organized rank-and-file into the streets. Some protesters view them with suspicion, considering them an old guard not ready to bring dramatic change.

Leading activist Madani Abbas Madani said protesters would continue an open-ended civil disobedience campaign until the overthrow of the ruling military council.

“What happened on Monday was a systematic and planned attempt to impose repression on the Sudanese people,” he said.

 ___

 Magdy reported from Cairo. </s> KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Huge crowds marched on Sudan’s defense ministry on Sunday demanding the ruling military hand over power to civilians, and the authorities said at least seven people were killed and scores injured in protests nationwide.

In the biggest demonstrations since a deadly raid by security forces on a protest camp in central Khartoum three weeks ago, tens of thousands of residents took to the streets in several parts of the Sudanese capital.

In two areas near the presidential palace and in the upscale eastern neighborhood of Riyadh, they were met by security forces firing barrages of tear gas, witnesses said.

The deputy head of Sudan’s ruling military council, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, said unknown snipers were shooting at civilians and soldiers.

Seven people were killed and 181 wounded, 27 of them by live fire, in protests nationwide, the state news agency reported, citing a Health Ministry undersecretary.

The official said 10 of those injured were members of regular forces, including three conscripts of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Hemedti, who were injured by gunfire. The remaining seven were injured by stones hurled by demonstrators, he added.

A doctor’s group linked to the opposition said at least five protesters were killed and dozens injured during demonstrations in several cities. Reuters could not verify those accounts.

Sudan’s military overthrew president Omar al-Bashir in April after months of demonstrations against his rule.

Opposition groups kept up those demonstrations as they pressed the military to hand over power to civilians. But talks broke down after members of the security services raided the sit-in protest camp outside the defense ministry on June 3.

The Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) opposition coalition called for a million people to demonstrate on Sunday - the 30th anniversary of the coup that brought Bashir to power, and the African Union’s deadline for Sudan’s military rulers to hand over to civilians or face further sanctions.

Demonstrators hold Sudanese flag as they march on the streets demanding the ruling military hand over to civilians, in Khartoum, Sudan, June 30, 2019. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

“WE WILL NOT RETREAT”

In another part of Khartoum, thousands blocked the main multi-lane highway that leads to the airport as they marched toward the home of a protester who was killed in January.

Protesters waved the Sudanese flag and chanted “civilian, civilian” and “blood for blood,” as Sudan beefed up security across the capital.

“We came out once again for the revolution and we will not retreat until they handover power to a civilian authority,” protester Hassan Ahmed told Reuters.

The Transitional Military Council had warned a day earlier that the opposition coalition would bear the responsibility for any loss of life or damage resulting from Sunday’s protests.

Members of one of the main opposition groups - the Sudanese Professionals’ Association - said the security services raided its headquarters on Saturday night as it was about to give a news conference.

Slideshow (15 Images)

The United Nations has said it has received reports that more than 100 protesters were killed and many more injured during the June 3 raid on the protest camp.

Military leaders have denied ordering a raid on the camp and said a crackdown on criminals nearby had spilled over.

The council has said some officers had been detained for presumed responsibility, and that it still intends to hand over power after elections.

Mediators led by the African Union and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed have been trying to broker a return to direct talks. </s> Tens of thousands of Sudanese protesters took to the streets on Sunday to call for an immediate transition to civilian rule, in the biggest mass demonstrations since dozens were gunned down at the beginning of the month.

The “millions march” was organised across the country to mark 30 years since ousted President Omar al-Bashir came to power during a military coup.

Three hours into Sunday’s protests, Sudanese doctors had already reported the first casualty, saying a demonstrator was killed after being shot in the chest in the town of Atbara, in Sudan’s northeast. There were also reports of shooting and tear gas being used by security forces in capital, Khartoum.

On June 3rd, fighters from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) used violence to disperse a massive weeks-long sit-in by thousands of civilians in front of the military headquarters in Khartoum. Activists said some bodies were subsequently thrown into the Nile.

More than 100 people were killed and more than 700 injured, according to Amnesty International. Doctors present said both women and men were also victims of sexual violence.

The internet in Sudan has been blocked since the crackdown, but activists still found ways to spread word of Sunday’s protest, including with graffiti, announcing details through megaphones and by distributing leaflets.

Others, who found ways to get around the internet blockade, posted rallying messages online.

“The Sudanese revolution is proof that our language, culture and goals are the same: resistance, and we will win,” wrote Ahmad Mahmoud, one of the protesters, on Facebook.

The attempt to cut communication between Sudanese people and the outside world failed, Mr Mahmoud added, as evidenced by the #blueforsudan campaign, which saw people all over the world change their social media profiles to blue in solidarity with Sudan’s protesters.

Last week, Amnesty International secretary general Kumi Naidoo called on Sudan’s transitional authorities not to use violence against civilians again, and to uphold the Sudanese people’s rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association. “Since the bloody crackdown earlier this month, there has been an alarming regression on human rights,” Mr Naidoo said. “This includes an ongoing internet shutdown, attacks on the media and the refusal to allow opposition groups to organise public forums, as well as the continued dispersal of peaceful protesters using unnecessary and excessive force. This clampdown clearly points to the return of the repressive days associated with al-Bashir . . .

“The rest of the world has seen very clearly the passion with which Sudanese people are campaigning for their human rights. The world is watching.”

On Saturday, Sudan’s ruling military council warned Sudanese citizens not to take part in the protests, saying the opposition would be responsible if anyone was killed. Al-Bashir was ousted in a military coup on April 11th, following months of protests, and is now facing trial on charges of “possessing foreign currency and acquiring suspicious and illicit wealth”. However, protesters argue his regime continues to control the country. </s> Bassam Hatoum And Samy Magdy, The Associated Press 

 



KHARTOUM, Sudan -- At least 40 bodies were pulled from the Nile River in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, organizers of pro-democracy protests said Wednesday, bringing the death toll since the violent dispersal of a sit-in outside the military's headquarters to 100.

The Sudan Doctors' Committee said Wednesday the bodies were pulled out a day earlier, and that they were taken by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces to an unknown location. The sit-in was broken up by the military on Monday.

One activist, Amal al-Zein, said the number could be even higher. She said dozens of bodies had been pulled from the Nile in different places near the sit-in area and were taken to a hospital morgue.

“Some bodies have wounds from bullets, others seemed to have beaten and thrown in the Nile,” she said.

The announcement came as Sudanese protest leaders dismissed a call for talks with the ruling generals, saying the military cannot be serious about negotiations while troops keep shooting and killing protesters.

A spokesman for the protesters said they would instead continue their pro-democracy campaign to pressure the military to hand over power to a civilian authority.

Earlier on Wednesday, the head of the military council, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, said the generals were ready to resume negotiations and that there would be “no restrictions” in talks with the leaders behind the months-long street protests.

“We open our hands to negotiations with all parties ... for the interest of the nation,” Burhan said, adding that those responsible for the violent beak-up of the demonstrators' sit-in in the capital, Khartoum, would be held accountable.

The motives for Burhan's about-face - if sincere - were not immediately clear. Burhan had earlier cut the negotiations and cancelled all agreed-on points between the military and the Forces for Declaration of Freedom and Change, an alliance which represents the protesters.

Mohammed Yousef al-Mustafa, a spokesman for the Sudanese Professionals Association, which is also part of the alliance and which is leading the demonstrations, said the protesters “totally reject” Burhan's call.

“This call is not serious,” al-Mustafa told The Associated Press. “Burhan and those under him have killed the Sudanese and are still doing it. Their vehicles patrol the streets, firing at people.”

“We will continue in our protests, resistance, strike and total civil disobedience,” he added.

Meanwhile, the death toll in the military's crackdown reached 100 on Wednesday, organizers said. The mounting casualties are the latest challenge to the protest movement, which now aims to show it can keep up pressure in the streets after its central rallying point - the weeks-long sit-in outside the military headquarters in Khartoum - was wiped out on Monday.

In April, the movement succeeded in forcing the military to remove Sudan's longtime strongman, Omar al-Bashir. It then kept its sit-in going, demanding that the generals who took power hand over authority to civilians.

The last previously reported death toll stood at 40 but the doctors committee said security forces killed at least 10 people on Wednesday in Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman. That came after another 10 people were killed on Tuesday, including five in the White Nile state, three in Omdurman and two in Khartoum's Bahri neighbourhood. That total 100 includes the 40 bodies pulled from the river.

The doctors' committee, the medical arm of the Sudanese Professionals Association, also said that at least 326 people have been wounded in clashes in the past two days and that it feared the final death toll would be much higher.

Activists Mohammed Najib and Hashim al-Sudani said there were street battles late Tuesday and early Wednesday in Khartoum's Bahri and Buri districts between protesters and security forces, mainly from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF.

“In Buri, there were lots of shootings and tear gas,” al-Sudani said. “They tried to force people into narrow streets” to beat them.

The opposition Congress Party reported more protests on Wednesday, posting footage showing hundreds of people marching in Omdurman.

On Monday, members of the RSF, which human rights groups say carried out rapes, torture and killings of civilians in Sudan's Darfur region, and other troops waded into the protest camp outside the military's headquarters in Khartoum, opening fire and burning down tents. Other troops crushed two smaller sit-ins organized by the protesters elsewhere.

After al-Bashir's ouster, for weeks, the military and protest leaders negotiated over the makeup of a transitional council meant to run the country for three years before elections. Protesters demand that civilians dominate the council, but the generals resisted.

The crackdown put an end to the relative peace that surrounded the talks and signalled the military had lost patience with activists' demands, putting the two sides on the path of a potentially longer confrontation with increasing violence.

Burhan's call for negotiations marked a significant change from his televised speech only a day earlier, when he blamed protest leaders for the volatile situation, accusing them of drawing out negotiations and trying to exclude some “political and security forces” from taking part in any transitional government.

He also announced Tuesday that the military would unilaterally form an interim government and hold elections sooner, within seven to nine months, under international supervision. Protesters had also rejected that because it would put the military in charge of running the election.

Since Monday, tensions have remained high in Khartoum and elsewhere as demonstrators staged scattered rallies and blocked main roads with barricades. Security forces have been seen in online videos, patrolling Khartoum districts.

Madani Abbas Madani, a leading activist, said the protesters would continue an open-ended civil disobedience campaign until the overthrow of the ruling military council.

“What happened on Monday was a systematic and planned attempt to impose repression on the Sudanese people,” he said.

In a joint statement, the U.S., Norway and Britain have condemned the security forces' crackdown. The statement, released late Tuesday, said Sudan's military council “put the transition process and peace in Sudan in jeopardy” by ordering attacks on protesters.
Ten people are killed in Sudan during clashes between the Sudanese military and civilian protesters.