Blinken says violence against Sudan protesters unacceptable

CAIRO - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday that Sudan’s security forces must respect human rights and that any violence against peaceful demonstrators is "unacceptable".

He said in a Twitter post that the United States continues to stand with "Sudan’s people in their nonviolent struggle for democracy".

Opponents of a military coup in Sudan have called for nationwide protests on Saturday to demand the restoration of a civilian-led government to put the country back on a path to democracy after decades of authoritarian rule.

The UN special envoy for Sudan met with the powerful leader of a Sudanese paramilitary force, urging him to allow peaceful protests Saturday and avoid confrontation in the wake of a military coup earlier this week.

Pro-democracy activist groups have called for “million-person” marches across the country Saturday to press demands for re-instating a deposed transitional government and releasing senior political figures from detention.

The takeover threatens to derail Sudan's fragile Western-backed transition to democracy which got under way two years ago, after the ouster of long-time autocrat Omar al-Bashir.

The UN envoy, Volker Perthes, met late Friday with Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, a coup leader seen as close to Sudan's strongman, General Abdel-Fattah Burhan.

Dagalo commands the feared Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary unit that controls the streets of the capital of Khartoum and played a major role in the coup. The RSF is notorious for atrocities and rapes during the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region and for deadly attacks on pro-democracy protesters in 2019.

Perthes said in a message posted on Twitter that he “stressed the need for calm, allowing peaceful protest and avoiding any confrontation” in his talks with Dagalo.