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The Sudanese capital, Khartoum, witnessed this morning a cut in Internet services, before pro-democracy demonstrations across the country. This is the first time in months that internet services are cut off prior to the demonstrations.

These demonstrations mark the three-year anniversary of the mass rallies in the 2019 protests that toppled the regime of Omar al-Bashir and led to a power-sharing arrangement through a transitional government made up of civilians and military personnel.

But a coup last October led by General Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan overthrew that transitional government and the army seized power.

The June 30 demonstrations also coincide with the anniversary of a coup led by former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in 1989 once morest the last democratically elected civilian government, to make Sudan fall for three decades in the iron grip of the general with the support of Islamists.

Al-Burhan’s coup led to massive rallies that lasted for more than eight months calling on the army to leave politics.

The coup also prompted foreign governments to reduce their aid to Sudan, deepening a chronic economic crisis that the country is coexisting with.

Since the army’s seizure of power, the country has witnessed interruptions in internet services, in an attempt to impede the almost weekly protest movement.

Officials at two private companies in Sudan’s telecommunications sector, on condition of anonymity, said they had received orders from the authorities to shut down the internet once more on Thursday.

The French news agency AFP said telephone and internet lines had been down since the early hours of Thursday morning.

Security forces increased their presence in Khartoum on Thursday, despite the recent announcement of the lifting of the state of emergency imposed in the wake of the coup.

Security forces closed bridges over the Nile between Khartoum and two cities, Omdurman and Bahri, in another step taken during the days of major demonstrations to impede the movement of protesters.

“The security committee in the state of Khartoum announced the closure of all bridges over the Nile, except for the Soba and Halfaya bridges, in anticipation of millions of demonstrations” today, Thursday, Bag News news website reported.

During rallies yesterday, Wednesday, in northern Khartoum, a Sudanese protester was killed. The Central Committee of Sudan Doctors said that the protester died of a “shot to the chest”.

Through social networking sites, activists launched the “Millionaire June 30 earthquake” hashtag to demand the return of power to civilians.

The Forces for Freedom and Change called for “active participation” in the demonstrations today, Thursday, June 30, saying that it is “our way to bring down the coup and cut off any imaginary alternatives.”

For his part, UN Special Envoy Volker Perthes called on the security forces to exercise restraint.

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry summoned the United Nations envoy to the country, Volker Perthes, once morest the background of statements made by the latter regarding Thursday’s anti-army demonstrations.

And the official news agency in Sudan quoted the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dafa Allah Haj Ali, as saying that Perthes’s statements were unacceptable because they entailed guardianship and a violation of national sovereignty.

“Violence once morest protesters will not be tolerated,” Perthes said. He added that no one should “give an opportunity to saboteurs seeking an escalation in Sudan.”

Meanwhile, the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development in East Africa (IGAD) and the United Nations are trying to hold talks between generals and civilians, but they are being boycotted by all the major civilian factions.

The United Nations warns of the consequences of the economic and political crisis in Sudan, which threatens to push a third of the country’s population, which brings its population to 40 million, towards a life-threatening food shortage.