Piled onto the roof of a train or packed inside, hundreds of protesters from the birthplace of the uprising that toppled Sudan’s former President Omar al-Bashir rolled into Khartoum on Tuesday to support activists demanding that the military relinquish power to civilians.
About 4,000 protesters, many of them waving Sudan’s green, red, black and while flag, greeted them at Khartoum’s main station as the train arrived from Atbara.
Demonstrators began a sit-in outside the Defense Ministry compound on April 6, five days before the military announced Bashir’s removal.
It has continued as protesters push for a swift handover to civilian rule and the number of demonstrators has swelled in recent days.
Two witnesses said authorities attempted to disperse the sit-in about midday. They used loaders to try to take down the roadblocks and barriers put up by protesters, but were chased away by demonstrators, witnesses said.
The Sudanese Professionals’ Association (SPA), the main protest organiser, also said security forces had attempted to disperse the sit-in. The group encouraged protesters to put up more barriers and keep protesting.
“We call on everyone to go to the sit-in in anticipation of any other attempt and to welcome the Atbara revolutionaries who are on their way to the sit-in,” the SPA said.
Dozens of journalists marched toward the sit-in on Tuesday and dozens of teachers also planned to join.
Villagers from northern Khartoum brought livestock to the sit-in to slaughter and feed the protesters.
State news agency SUNA said that Transitional Military Council head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had told the BBC that the TMC would never use violence against the protesters.
Protests in Sudan were sparked by an attempt to raise bread prices amid a deepening economic crisis, quickly turning against Bashir’s 30-year rule and spreading to cities.
Atbara, about 290 km (180 miles) northeast of the capital, is a railway hub with a large railworker population and has historically been known to be the hotbed of opposition unions and unrest.