Image copyright Reuters Image caption A Sudanese protester stands on a barricade in Khartoum on Wednesday

A Sudanese official has denied that at least 100 people were killed by a paramilitary unit during protests, saying that the number was at most 46.

Doctors linked to the opposition on Wednesday said at least 100 people had been killed in the capital, Khartoum, amid pro-democracy protests.

They said 40 bodies were pulled from the River Nile in Khartoum on Tuesday.

Authorities had initially stayed quiet, but a health ministry official put the number at 46 early on Thursday.

Sudanese opposition activists have rejected an offer of talks from the country's military council, saying it cannot be trusted amid a violent crackdown on protesters.

Residents told the BBC they were living in fear in the capital.

The deputy head of the military council defended the violent suppression, claiming that the protesters had been infiltrated by rogue elements and drug dealers.

"We will not allow chaos and we will not go back on our convictions. There is no way back. We must impose the respect of the country by law," said Mohammed Hamadan - also known as Hemeti - on Wednesday.

Numerous reports from Khartoum said the paramilitary unit, the feared Rapid Support Forces (RSF), was roaming the city's nearly deserted streets, targeting civilians.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Security forces, seen here on Monday, moved against protesters after a long stand-off

Formerly known as the Janjaweed militia, the RSF gained notoriety for brutal atrocities in the Darfur conflict in western Sudan in 2003.

Reports continue to come in of these militia going into neighbourhoods and killing people. Their leader claims it is impostors behind the violence.

Doctors afraid of going to work

By Catherine Byaruhanga, BBC News, Khartoum

People are still coming to terms with the violence of the last few days.

At the former sit-in area - there are torn and charred posters as well as burnt-out tents.

The fear is that more of the dead could still be there.

Security forces seem to outnumber civilians on the streets of the capital.

Reports continue to come in of their brutal crackdown.

At Ibrahim Maleek Teaching Hospital - the doctors and nurses have not come to work because they're afraid of being targeted. Instead, it's the medical students who are treating patients.

Like 33-year-old Mohanned Mirghani - he says he was shot at close range by the Rapid Support Forces. "They shot me from close range; the RSF were the distance that you are from me now. Two of my friends were also shot but I don't know what happened to them."

It's hard to get a proper sense of what's happened. One big hindrance is the fact that the military rulers have cut off the internet.

What was the lead-up to the latest violence?

Sudan has been controlled by a military council since pro-democracy protests led to the ousting of veteran President Omar al-Bashir in April, after 30 years of authoritarian rule.

Demonstrators had been occupying the square in front of the military headquarters, while their representatives had negotiated with the military council and agreed a three-year transition that would culminate in elections.

But on Monday, security forces swept in and opened fire on unarmed protesters in the square. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the military council, announced that the agreement was cancelled and an election would take place within nine months.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Sudan military attacks protesters

On Wednesday, however, after Saudi Arabia publicly called for a resumption of talks, Gen Burhan reversed course and said the military council would "open our arms to negotiate with no restriction".

The offer was rejected by the opposition. "The Sudanese people are not open for talks," said Amjad Farid, a spokesman for the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) which spearheaded the protests against Mr Bashir.

"The Sudanese people are not open to this TMC (Transitional Military Council) that kills people and we need justice and accountability before talks about any political process," Mr Farid told the AFP news agency.

What have residents been saying?

The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors - one of the groups behind the protests - said on Wednesday that 40 bodies had been recovered from the River Nile.

An official from the group told the BBC that they had witnessed and verified the bodies in hospitals and that the death toll now stood at at least 100.

A former security officer quoted by Yousra Elbagir, a journalist with the UK's Channel 4, said that some of those thrown into the Nile had been beaten or shot to death and others hacked to death with machetes.

"It was a massacre," the unnamed source said.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Many Khartoum streets are deserted

Much of Khartoum has been under lockdown in the wake of the killings. Witnesses told the BBC that protesters had retreated to residential areas, where they were building barricades and burning tyres.

"We have reached the point where we can't even step out of our homes because we are scared to be beaten or to be shot by the security forces," one Khartoum resident said, asking not to be named.

Another resident told the BBC he had been pulled from his car by members of the RSF and beaten on his head and back.

A pharmacist who spoke to the BBC from Khartoum said RSF troops were shutting down hospitals to prevent civilians receiving treatment.

"They kicked us out from two hospitals that were giving aid to the injured and the victims of the gunshots," he said. "It's an order from the military council to shut down those hospitals because we were giving aid for the citizens."

A woman, identified only as Sulaima, told the BBC that troops from the Rapid Support Forces were "all over Khartoum".

"They're surrounding neighbourhoods, they're threatening people. They're also using live ammunition. They're everywhere. We're not feeling safe and we don't have trust in the security forces. It's complete chaos."

Large numbers of heavily armed troops were also reported on the streets of Omdurman, Sudan's second-largest city, just across the River Nile from Khartoum.

Are you in the area? If it is safe to do so, please share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways: </s> A Sudanese official has denied that at least 100 people were killed by a paramilitary unit during protests, saying that the number was at most 46.

Doctors linked to the opposition on Wednesday said at least 100 people had been killed in the capital, Khartoum, amid pro-democracy protests.

They said 40 bodies were pulled from the River Nile in Khartoum on Tuesday.

Authorities had initially stayed quiet, but a health ministry official put the number at 46 early on Thursday.

Sudanese opposition activists have rejected an offer of talks from the country's military council, saying it cannot be trusted amid a violent crackdown on protesters.

Residents told the BBC they were living in fear in the capital.

The deputy head of the military council defended the violent suppression, claiming that the protesters had been infiltrated by rogue elements and drug dealers.

"We will not allow chaos and we will not go back on our convictions. There is no way back. We must impose the respect of the country by law," said Mohammed Hamadan - also known as Hemedti - on Wednesday.

Numerous reports from Khartoum said the paramilitary unit, the feared Rapid Support Forces (RSF), was roaming the city's nearly deserted streets, targeting civilians.

Formerly known as the Janjaweed militia, the RSF gained notoriety for brutal atrocities in the Darfur conflict in western Sudan in 2003. </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. </s> 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 canceled 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 neighborhood. 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 signaled 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. </s> A Sudanese official has denied that at least 100 people were killed by a paramilitary unit during protests, saying that the number was at most 46.

Doctors linked to the opposition on Wednesday said at least 100 people had been killed in the capital, Khartoum, amid pro-democracy protests.

They said 40 bodies were pulled from the River Nile in Khartoum on Tuesday.

Authorities had initially stayed quiet, but a health ministry official put the number at 46 early on Thursday.

Sudanese opposition activists have rejected an offer of talks from the country’s military council, saying it cannot be trusted amid a violent crackdown on protesters.

Residents told the BBC they were living in fear in the capital.

The deputy head of the military council defended the violent suppression, claiming that the protesters had been infiltrated by rogue elements and drug dealers.

“We will not allow chaos and we will not go back on our convictions. There is no way back. We must impose the respect of the country by law,” said Mohammed Hamadan – also known as Hemeti – on Wednesday.

Numerous reports from Khartoum said the paramilitary unit, the feared Rapid Support Forces (RSF), was roaming the city’s nearly deserted streets, targeting civilians.

Formerly known as the Janjaweed militia, the RSF gained notoriety for brutal atrocities in the Darfur conflict in western Sudan in 2003.

Reports continue to come in of these militia going into neighbourhoods and killing people. Their leader claims it is impostors behind the violence. </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> 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> Sudanese protest leaders have turned down an offer by the ruling military council for talks and demanded justice for a crackdown that doctors said has left 108 people dead.

Security forces moved in to brutally disperse a protest sit-in on Monday.

The Rapid Support Forces, paramilitaries said by rights groups to have their origins in the Janjaweed militias accused of abuses during the 16-year-old conflict in Darfur, are thought to have been largely behind the crackdown.

The Central Committee for Sudanese Doctors close to the protest movement said on Wednesday that at least 108 people had been killed in the crackdown, including 40 whose bodies were recovered from the Nile, and more than 500 wounded.

Sudan has been controlled by a military council since it ousted veteran president Omar al-Bashir in April after protesters demanded an end to his authoritarian rule before agreeing a three-year transition period to a civilian administration.

But army ruler General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said following the crackdown that the agreement had been ditched and an election would take place within nine months -- a plan rejected by demonstrators.

On Wednesday, however, Burhan said those in "the military council open our arms to negotiate with no restriction", an offer that the protest leaders were quick to reject.

"The Sudanese people are not open for talks," said Amjad Farid, a spokesman for the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) which spearheaded protests that led to the ouster of Bashir.

"The Sudanese people are not open to this TMC (Transitional Military Council) that kills people and we need justice and accountability before talks about any political process," he told AFP.

Farid said both the SPA and umbrella protest group the Alliance for Freedom and Change would "continue using all non-violent tools and civil disobedience in resisting the TMC".

The rejection came after the commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces accused of carrying out the deadly crackdown insisted the country would not be allowed to slip into "chaos".

"We will not allow chaos... we must impose the authority of the state through law," Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, deputy chief of the military council, told his forces in a televised address.

Hospitals in Khartoum said they were struggling to cope with the number of wounded after security forces on Monday raided a weeks-long sit-in outside army headquarters.

"The situation is very difficult. Most of the hospitals have taken in more casualties than they have capacity for," a doctor who works at two hospitals in the city told AFP.

"There's a shortage of medical staff, a shortage of blood," said the doctor, who asked not to be named.

"Among the wounded there are still people in a serious condition and I expect the number of deaths to rise."

There was a heavy security presence as worshippers in some neighborhoods came out to mark the Eid al-Fitr festival.

In Omdurman, just across the Nile from Khartoum, security forces were seen patrolling in machine-gun mounted trucks.

Protest leaders have called on their supporters to take part in "total civil disobedience" to topple the military council.

On Wednesday, hundreds of residents of north Khartoum blocked off streets with rocks, and waited by them in silence, a witness told AFP.

In the distance gunfire was heard.

The United Nations said late Wednesday it was relocating some of its staff away from Khartoum, while Britain warned its citizens against all but essential travel and decided to pull non-essential staff from its embassy.

The Sudanese Doctors Union accused security forces of attacks on hospitals and staff across the country, and alleged some women had been raped in an area of the capital without giving details of how the group had learned of the assaults.

A push for the U.N. Security Council to condemn the killing of civilians and call on the military and protesters to work together was blocked by China, which was backed by Russia, during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday.

Eight European countries instead issued their own joint statement criticizing "the violent attacks in Sudan by Sudanese security services against civilians."

The U.S. called on the military rulers to "desist from violence" and urged talks with protesters to resume.

Amnesty International called on the African Union and the U.N. to "take immediate action to hold the perpetrators of this violence accountable."

British ambassador to Khartoum, Irfan Siddiq, called for an end to the internet outages that have plagued the country since the crackdown.

"In these critical times it is essential that everyone can communicate, particularly to urge messages of keeping things calm and peaceful," he tweeted.

Top U.S. envoy David Hale, under secretary of state for political affairs, underlined the importance of a transition to a civilian-led government in a phone call with the Saudi deputy defense minister, Khalid bin Salman, the State Department said.

Saudi Arabia, a key backer of the military rulers, called for a resumption of "dialogue between the various parties of Sudan." </s> Medics recover dozens of bodies from the Nile in Sudan

Medics recover dozens of bodies from the Nile in Sudan

Security forces violently dispersed a weeks-long sit-in outside the military headquarters in Khartoum on Monday

Medics say they have recovered dozens of bodies from the river Nile, bringing the total death toll in recent unrest to more than a hundred.

The Sudan Doctors' Committee, a group aligned with opposition, said at least 40 bodies had been pulled from the river in the capital Khartoum on Tuesday, and had been taken to an unknown location.

This follows from a day of violence on Monday, when Sudanese security forces opened fire on protesters taking part in a weeks-long sit-in outside the city's military headquarters.

Opposition medics initially estimated that 13 people had been killed, but this figure rose rapidly, eventually passing a hundred by Wednesday.

Activist Amal al-Zein said she believed the death toll could be higher as dozens more bodies had been recovered from various places along the river.

She said: "Some bodies have wounds from bullets, others seemed to have beaten and thrown in the Nile".

No official death toll figures have so far been released.

The sit-in, which began on 6 April, successfully saw the toppling of former president Omar al-Bashir amid a military coup.

But the pro-democracy protests continued as participants demanded the military agree to hand over power to a civilian-led government.

Talks between civilian representatives and the military began in May, eventually reaching an agreement on a transitional period that would last three years.

But the ruling military council suspended talks and cancelled all agreements after the violent intervention in the pro-democracy sit-in earlier this week.

The deputy head of the military council, General Mohamed Hamdan "Hemedti" Dagalo, said in a televised statement on Wednesday that a "fair and independent" investigation into the sit-in violence had been opened.

He vowed that anyone found to have "crossed boundaries" would be punished.

The council also called for talks to resume, but this was swiftly rejected by the opposition, which said the transition process had been thrown into "jeopardy".

Mohammed Yousef al-Mustafa, a spokesperson for the opposition Sudanese Professional Association, said the call to resume talks was "not serious", and that the military "have killed the Sudanese and are still doing it".

He added: "Their vehicles patrol the streets firing at people."

"We will continue in our protests, resistance, strike and total civil disobedience."
The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors say the number of people killed this week in Sudan is at least 100, and that 40 bodies were pulled from the River Nile at Khartoum on Tuesday. Members of the Rapid Support Forces have reportedly been roaming the streets attacking civilians as it pushes deeper into Khartoum.