Khartoum , (AFP) - Sudanese police fired tear gas canisters to disperse thousands of demonstrators who took to the streets of Khartoum again Thursday, demanding the return of civilian rule and an end to the military coup carried out by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan last year.

According to eyewitnesses, the demonstrators carried Sudanese flags and chanted "No to military rule" and "Civilian people's choice."

Sudan, one of the poorest countries in the Arab world and mired in its political and economic crises since the fall of former President Omar al-Bashir in 2019, has been suffering from continuous unrest since the military coup that took place on October 25th.

This prompted the Sudanese to demonstrate regularly since then, to demand an end to military rule, and the demonstrations often included violent confrontations with the security forces, which resulted in the killing of 116 demonstrators, according to the Central Committee of Doctors of Sudan against the coup.

The worsening economic crisis and security chaos led to an escalation of ethnic clashes in areas far from the capital.

Al-Burhan has always insisted on describing what happened as "correcting" the course of the transitional period and that it was not a military coup.

On July 4, al-Burhan announced that the military institution would "not participate" in the national dialogue called for by the United Nations and the African Union to "pave the way for political and revolutionary forces ... and to form a government of independent national competencies."

However, Al-Burhan's announcement was rejected by the demonstrators and opposition forces. The Forces for Freedom and Change described the announcement as an "exposed maneuver".

Recently, Al-Burhan announced his support for an initiative known as "The Call of the People of Sudan", which is sponsored by the famous Sufi religious leader, Al-Tayeb Al-Jedd Badr, aimed at ending the political crisis in the country. Its conference was launched on Saturday in the presence of dozens of political parties.

Absent from the conference was the main opposition coalition in the country, the Forces for Freedom and Change, whose members were ousted from the transitional body in the Burhan coup.

Also absent are members of the Resistance Committees, informal groups that emerged during the 2019 protests against former President Omar al-Bashir and have regularly opposed the military coup during recent demonstrations.

In an interview earlier this month with BBC Arabic, the deputy head of the Sudanese Sovereign Council, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, criticized the military coup and said, "Unfortunately, we also did not succeed in change."