Hundreds of Sudanese people staged rallies near the presidential palace in Khartoum on Thursday, seeking justice for comrade who were killed in demonstrations that rocked the country since December, an AFP correspondent reported.
Mobilized by protest umbrella the Forces for Freedom and Change, demonstrators also urged the new authorities to appoint a permanent chief of judiciary and prosecutor general.
"Blood for blood -- we won't accept compensation!" chanted the crowds near the palace in Khartoum, many carrying Sudanese flags and photographs of those killed in protest related violence.
Police had blocked protesters in central Khartoum about 200 meters from the palace, but they surged past a barbed wire barrier to the palace gates. Police later fired tear gas to disperse them, Reuters witnesses said.
Some also called out “The people want a new chief justice,” and “Yes to an independent judiciary.”
“We demand justice for the martyrs, and for those who killed them to face justice,” said one young female protest organizer.
More than 250 people have been killed since protests erupted in December, first against now ousted president Omar al-Bashir and later against a military council that deposed him.
In August, Sudan embarked on a transition to civilian rule thanks to a power-sharing deal signed between protest leaders and the generals, and a joint civilian-military ruling body was sworn in.
That body -- headed by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who also led the military council before it was dissolved last month -- now sits at the presidential palace.
Authorities have acknowledged 87 deaths resulting from the violence that day, but protest groups have put the toll at nearly 130.
Members of the feared Rapid Support Forces militia - headed by General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, a key powerbroker in the military council and subsequently the new sovereign council -- have been widely accused of orchestrating those killings.
On Thursday, protesters also demanded a new permanent chief of judiciary and a prosecutor general in order to investigate cases against those responsible for the killings of demonstrators.
"The revolution could fail if there's a delay in these appointments," a group of lawyers who are part of the protest movement said in a statement.
Similar rallies were also reported in the Red Sea coastal city of Port Sudan and in the towns of Kassala and Madani, witnesses said.
Sudan's first cabinet since the ouster of Bashir was sworn in on Sunday.
