Segun Akanni, Toronto, Canada 
Sudan’s army deployed around its Khartoum headquarters yesterday as thousands of protesters urging the military to back calls for leader Omar al-Bashir’s resignation defied tear gas to demonstrate for a third day.
The morning tear gas was felt by residents in an upscale Khartoum district some five kilometres away from the army complex. “I stepped out on my balcony hearing the sound of the gas canisters and could feel the gas in the air,” said one resident.
A few hours later security personnel again fired tear gas at the demonstrators, witnesses said.
Protest organisers urged the residents of Khartoum and nearby areas to join the demonstrators who have been on the streets for three days straight.
“Security forces of the regime are trying to disperse the sit-in by force,” the organisers called the Alliance for Freedom and Change said in a statement. “We call on all people around Khartoum to gather there to protect our people on the ground.” Some companies have told employees not to come into work “until further notice”.
Since protests erupted across Sudan in December agents of the powerful National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) and riot police have cracked down on demonstrators, but the army has not intervened.
