Sudan's military ruler on Wednesday offered to resume a dialogue on a transition to democracy, one day after he scrapped all agreements with an opposition alliance, as the death toll in the crackdown on the opposition rose to around 60.
In a Eid al-Fitr message broadcast on state television, the head of Sudan's ruling military council, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, paid homage to the uprising that began in December and culminated with the military overthrow and arrest of President Omar al-Bashir in April. He was still ready to hand over power to an elected government, he said.
"We in the military council, extend our hands to negotiations without shackles except the interests of the homeland," Burhan said.
Burhan had previously announced he was skipping any negotiations with protest groups and said he would organize elections within nine months.
His decision came after security forces stormed a protest camp site outside the Defense Ministry in central Khartoum in an operation that resulted in the death of at least 35 people, according to the doctors' group.
The association said more people had been killed since then.
The last previously reported death toll stood at 40 but the Sudan Doctors Committee said security forces killed at least 10 people on Wednesday in Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman. That came after another 10 people were killed on Tuesday, including five in the White Nile state, three in Omdurman and two in Khartoum's Bahri neighborhood.
