Khartoum looked like a ghost town on Thursday, ahead of demonstrations marking the anniversary of two uprisings that toppled two coup presidents, after differences between the military and paramilitary forces led to a new postponement of an agreement that opens the door to the country's exit from the crisis.

The Alliance of Freedom and Change Forces, which represents civil forces, called for demonstrations after this new postponement of signing the agreement that would revive the democratic transition process after the 2021 coup.

Since Wednesday, dozens of armored vehicles have been deployed in the Sudanese capital, closing bridges linking its neighborhoods on the banks of the Nile, and surrounding the presidential palace, towards which all anti-military demonstrations have been heading for nearly a year and a half.

And the authorities declared Thursday an official holiday, as the date of the sixth of April has indications in the history of Sudan, which has been ruled by the military on a semi-permanent basis since independence in 1956. On this date in the years 1985 and 2019, the Sudanese overthrew two presidents who came to power with two coups.

In 2019, when the army, under pressure from the street, announced the dismissal of the emerging President Omar al-Bashir from its ranks, the demonstrators were chanting, calling for "freedom, peace and justice."

On Thursday, the Sudanese demonstrators will repeat the same slogan, according to what was said by the Alliance for Freedom and Change, which emerged from the uprising against Al-Bashir.

In the year 2019, while Sudan, one of the poorest countries in the world, was beginning its democratic transition process and was enjoying the support of the international community after a 30-year dictatorial rule, the forces of freedom and change formed a civilian government that shared the rule of the country with the military and was supposed to lead the country to free elections to hand over full power to civilians. .

However, on October 25, 2021, as the elections were approaching, the army commander, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan , suddenly closed the door to this democratic transition.

Al-Burhan led a coup and arrested most of the ministers and civil officials at dawn. Since then, the country has plunged into a political and economic crisis as the international community suspended all aid after the coup.

A year later, the military and civilians began new negotiations and pledged to sign an agreement on a return to power-sharing on the first of April, which was postponed to the sixth of the same month.

However, the Forces for Freedom and Change announced in a statement on Wednesday night a new postponement of signing "the final political agreement." She attributed the reason to "the resumption of joint talks between the military parties that signed the political framework agreement regarding the technical aspects of the security and military reform procedures."

The political forces confirmed, according to the statement, that "once an agreement is reached, the road will be clear before the signing of the final political agreement (..) and the military institution's exit from political life and the formation of full civil governance institutions."

In a speech to the nation on the occasion of the anniversary of the overthrow of Jaafar al-Numeiri in 1985, al-Burhan affirmed that "the parties are now working hard to complete the discussion on the remaining issues," stressing that the postponement was decided in order to "lay down solid frameworks that maintain the momentum of the revolution."
And to confirm its insistence on its goals, the Alliance of Forces for Freedom and Change called on civil and political forces to "actively participate in the April 6 processions in the capital and the states, and to adhere to peace."

The coalition called on the security services to "protect the popular processions scheduled for its launch," warning at the same time "against any violent interaction of any degree." After the security forces' suppression of anti-coup demonstrations led to the death of 125 Sudanese, according to the pro-democracy Doctors Syndicate.