Sudan coup 2021: Live updates

Reports - and videos - were emerging on Saturday afternoon of armed forces opening fire on protesters in Omdurman.

Sudan's Central Doctors' Committee said on Twitter that two protesters had been killed - one shot in the head, and another in the stomach.

Eyewitnesses have told Middle East Eye that armed clashes have erupted in the coastal city of Port Sudan between pro-democracy protesters and pro-military demonstrators headed by tribal leader Mohamed al-Amin Tirik.

“Followers of Tirik have attacked pro-democracy protesters in the market of the Port Sudan city,” one witness told MEE. “They used knives and swords to scare the protesters, but the police separated the two groups.”

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Earlier this month, Tirik and his supporters had shut down ports and blockaded roads in the area leading to the rest of the country - affecting the supply and distribution of food, bread, fuel and other materials - accusing the civilian branch of the government of responsibility for the 2020 Juba peace agreement, which was deemed “unfair” by some rebel groups in eastern Sudan.

As tens of thousands of Sudanese took to the streets across the country to denounce the military coup, members of the diaspora and other supporters of the pro-democracy movement staged solidarity protests across the world on Saturday.

Protests were reported to have taken place in Australia, Libya, and Lebanon, as well as across Europe.

Translation: “Is the blood of the martyr for you, or is the question forbidden? From the demonstration in front of the Sudanese embassy in Beirut against the military coup.

Translation: The masses of the Sudanese people abroad reject and resist the military coup. Part of the sit-in organised by the Sudanese community in Turin, Italy rejecting the military coup and demanding the civil state chosen by the Sudanese people, today 30 October 2021

Several protests are planned across the United Kingdom, including in London. Demonstrations are scheduled in the United States and Canada later in the day.

Speaking from Khartoum's Street 60, one activist told MEE that they had seen no violence so far, and had no interactions with security forces.

“But we don’t trust them, we don’t trust them at all. I’m looking up at these buildings and I’m thinking to myself there could be snipers at any point, pointing towards us…anything can happen. They’ve done it before and they can do it again. And if you corner them, they will do it. They have everything to lose.”

“I’m with my siblings, I’m with my cousins, we’re all together. I’m a single parent, I left my children back home, and I told them that we have to do this. Their father passed away just before the revolution started, by a few days. And it’s been an incredible journey, and they’ve seen everything. But today I told them I have to leave, because we have to do this. For them, for us, for all of us. Inshallah everything will be okay.”

One activist, speaking on the phone from Khartoum’s Street 60, with protesters chanting in the background, told MEE this afternoon:

“The atmosphere is electrifying. There’s a group coming in from the south side of Street 60, and a group coming in from the north side, I can see them coming towards us from either side. It’s a congregation of groups coming in from all directions, inshallah. I’m surrounded by women and men and young men, everyone is coming out, everyone.”

Sudan's doctors' committee posted pictures of the mass gathering at Street 60:

Speaking on the phone to MEE, an activist in al-Fashir, capital of North Darfur, said protests were taking place there under a heavy presence of police, soldiers, and Hemeti's Rapid Support Forces.

Sky News Arabia is reporting huge protests in Southern Khartoum.

In this video from Aldeim, protesters chant "we are revolutionaries, we are free, and we will go the distance."

The United States embassy and the embassies of a number of European states have told their nationals in Sudan not to move today in a bid to stay safe.

Last night, US special envoy Jeffrey Feltman said that he had spoken to General Abdul Fattah al-Burhan and Sudanese foreign minister Mariam al-Mahdi in order to deliver a clear message: "the Sudanese people must be allowed to protest peacefully this weekend, and the United States will be watching closely."

“We have the support of the international community, we have the support of our allies in the region, in Africa, we even have some form of support from some of the Arab countries, that has never happened before in the history of Sudan," activist Dallia told MEE from Khartoum.

"No popular protest has been met with so much international support and this is really significant, because international support means more pressure on the army."

“Our chant is ‘we will not go back’, ‘we will not revert to the past’, which means that we’re adamant, we’re determined, that we’re on the right track, and we’ll continue on the right track.”

“This isn’t a rewind, this is a reset,” Mai, another activist, added over the phone. “We’re cleaning up, we’re making sure this revolution reaches its successful goal.”

“Once the internet is back on the world is going to be shocked by what’s been happening," Sudanese civic activist Mai told MEE from Khartoum.

"We don’t even know half of what’s been happening around the city. There’s been deaths, and there’s been shooting straight at young men and women in neighbourhoods. But we can’t verify because we don’t have internet access, access to sources who can confirm or deny this."

"And the fear is that today will be worse, especially if the world is not watching.”

It has been hard to organise resistance with restricted internet access, activist Mai told Middle East Eye, “but the resistance committees have had two years to equip themselves with all sorts of contingency plans… they’ve had alternative plans in case this happens or that happens… They know it’s not going to be an easy ride, but they are determined and the people are determined as well.”

Another activist, Dallia, alongside Mai in Khartoum, added over the phone: “This time we didn’t need to organise, automatically people just went out protesting. The military and their allies were shocked at the sheer number of people who went out in support of the civilian government. They really thought [Prime Minister Abdalla] Hamdok and his government did not have the widespread support that they do, and they still do.”

Khartoum-based activist Mai described the atmosphere on the ground as, “very very suspenseful”, in a phone call with MEE.

“This is a big day, nobody knows how it’s going to turn out for them... The will is incredible, we’ve all been soaking up this resistance and inshallah today we will show them what they need to see and hear, which is basically, never, ever, ever again.”

Speaking to Middle East Eye over the phone from Khartoum, a civic activist and business owner from the capital who calls herself Mai said that there were armed forces at every major intersection in the centre of the city.

"Not only soldiers," she added, saying that men from different militias were there, some dressed in civilian clothing.

Reuters also reported a heavy deployment of armed troops in the centre of the city, including the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Security forces have blocked roads leading to the defence ministry complex and the airport, as well as most of the bridges connecting Khartoum with its twin cities Omdurman and Khartoum North.

With the internet restricted, few videos from today's protests Sudan are getting out. Here's a few that have emerged:

One chant is, "30 October, Burhan in Kober", a notorious Sudanese prison that held Bashir and his allies.