At least four people were killed as Sudanese security forces moved to quell a civil disobedience campaign launched on Sunday that left streets in the capital Khartoum largely deserted.
The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), a body that led protests against former leader Omar al-Bashir, said the civil disobedience campaign will only end when the ruling generals "transfer power to a civil transitional authority in accordance with the Declaration of Freedom and Change (DFC)."
It added, in a statement released Saturday, that the campaign meant not going to work and "general civil disobedience for a civil state."
"The civil disobedience movement will begin on Sunday and end only when a civilian government announces itself in power on state television," said the SPA.
"Disobedience is a peaceful act capable of bringing to its knees the most powerful weapons arsenal in the world."
The move to shutdown Khartoum came as four more people were reported to have been killed, bringing the total the total death toll to 118 people following last Monday's bloody military crackdown, according to the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors.
Public transport was barely functioning and most commercial banks, private companies and markets were shut, though some state banks and public utility offices were open.
Pro-democracy protesters have been campaigning for weeks to pressure the ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC) to hand power to a civilian-led government.
On Sunday, protesters gathered tyres, tree trunks and rocks to build new roadblocks in Khartoum's northern Bahari district, but riot police swiftly moved in and fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.
"Almost all internal roads of Bahari have roadblocks. Protesters are even stopping residents from going to work," said the witness.
Two people died after being beaten and stabbed and two people were shot dead, the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors (CCSD) said, blaming paramilitary groups.
Security forces arrested a number of airport officials and employees of Sudan's central bank on Sunday.
The raid came after weeks of wrangling between the TMC, which took over from Bashir, and the DFCF over who should steer a transition leading to elections.
TMC spokesman Shams El Din Kabbashi said on Sunday that the council was willing to listen to the opposition's demands and restart negotiations, which it halted after the attack on the camp.
Led by men in army fatigues, the raid on the weeks-long sit-in outside the army complex left more than 100 people dead, according to doctors close to the demonstrators.
The health ministry, however, said 61 people died in the crackdown, 52 of them by "live ammunition" in Khartoum.
Witnesses say the assault was led by the feared Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has its origins in the notorious Janjaweed militia, accused of abuses in the Darfur conflict between 2003 and 2004.
Also on Sunday, Sudanese state TV reported that a senior RSF commander, Mohamed Abdallah, had been replaced.
The call for "civil disobedience" came a day after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visited Khartoum, seeking to revive talks between the generals and protest leaders on the country's transition.
The TMC seized power in April after removing al-Bashir on the back of months-long protests against his nearly 30-year rule. Since then, it has resisted calls from protesters and Western nations to transfer power to a civilian administration.
In a bid to revive the negotiations, the Ethiopian prime minister held separate meetings with the two sides in Khartoum on Friday.
But three members of an opposition delegation who met the Ethiopian prime minister were later arrested.
Opposition politician Mohamed Esmat was arrested on Friday, and Ismail Jalab, a leader of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), was taken from his home. SPLM-N spokesman Mubarak Ardol was also arrested.
Since the crackdown, Khartoum residents have mostly been sheltering indoors and the streets have been deserted. RSF members and soldiers on Saturday cleared major Khartoum streets of roadblocks put up by protesters.
The RSF chief and deputy head of the TMC, Lieutenant-General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, warned he will not tolerate "any chaos".
The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), a body that led protests against former leader Omar al-Bashir, said the civil disobedience campaign will only end when the ruling generals "transfer power to a civil transitional authority in accordance with the Declaration of Freedom and Change (DFC)."
It added, in a statement released Saturday, that the campaign meant not going to work and "general civil disobedience for a civil state."
"The civil disobedience movement will begin on Sunday and end only when a civilian government announces itself in power on state television," said the SPA.
"Disobedience is a peaceful act capable of bringing to its knees the most powerful weapons arsenal in the world."
The move to shutdown Khartoum came as four more people were reported to have been killed, bringing the total the total death toll to 118 people following last Monday's bloody military crackdown, according to the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors.
Public transport was barely functioning and most commercial banks, private companies and markets were shut, though some state banks and public utility offices were open.
Pro-democracy protesters have been campaigning for weeks to pressure the ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC) to hand power to a civilian-led government.
On Sunday, protesters gathered tyres, tree trunks and rocks to build new roadblocks in Khartoum's northern Bahari district, but riot police swiftly moved in and fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.
"Almost all internal roads of Bahari have roadblocks. Protesters are even stopping residents from going to work," said the witness.
Two people died after being beaten and stabbed and two people were shot dead, the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors (CCSD) said, blaming paramilitary groups.
Security forces arrested a number of airport officials and employees of Sudan's central bank on Sunday.
The raid came after weeks of wrangling between the TMC, which took over from Bashir, and the DFCF over who should steer a transition leading to elections.
TMC spokesman Shams El Din Kabbashi said on Sunday that the council was willing to listen to the opposition's demands and restart negotiations, which it halted after the attack on the camp.
Led by men in army fatigues, the raid on the weeks-long sit-in outside the army complex left more than 100 people dead, according to doctors close to the demonstrators.
The health ministry, however, said 61 people died in the crackdown, 52 of them by "live ammunition" in Khartoum.
Witnesses say the assault was led by the feared Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has its origins in the notorious Janjaweed militia, accused of abuses in the Darfur conflict between 2003 and 2004.
Also on Sunday, Sudanese state TV reported that a senior RSF commander, Mohamed Abdallah, had been replaced.
The call for "civil disobedience" came a day after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visited Khartoum, seeking to revive talks between the generals and protest leaders on the country's transition.
The TMC seized power in April after removing al-Bashir on the back of months-long protests against his nearly 30-year rule. Since then, it has resisted calls from protesters and Western nations to transfer power to a civilian administration.
In a bid to revive the negotiations, the Ethiopian prime minister held separate meetings with the two sides in Khartoum on Friday.
But three members of an opposition delegation who met the Ethiopian prime minister were later arrested.
Opposition politician Mohamed Esmat was arrested on Friday, and Ismail Jalab, a leader of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), was taken from his home. SPLM-N spokesman Mubarak Ardol was also arrested.
Since the crackdown, Khartoum residents have mostly been sheltering indoors and the streets have been deserted. RSF members and soldiers on Saturday cleared major Khartoum streets of roadblocks put up by protesters.
The RSF chief and deputy head of the TMC, Lieutenant-General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, warned he will not tolerate "any chaos".