KHARTOUM, Sudan 

Sudanese protesters on Thursday closed Port Sudan Airport amid protests against a 2020 peace deal with rebel groups.

Beja tribes in eastern Sudan have criticized the peace agreement, saying it does not represent them.

"Port Sudan Airport has been closed, as a response to the central government's slowness in finding urgent and immediate solutions to the issue of eastern Sudan,” Ahmed Musa, a legal adviser to the High Council of Beja Nazirs, told Anadolu Agency.

Since Aug. 21, 2019, Sudan has been going through a 53-month transitional period that will end with holding elections in early 2024, during which power is shared by the army, the Forces of Freedom and Change alliance (FFC) and armed movements that signed a peace agreement with Khartoum on Oct. 3, 2020.

On Tuesday, Sudanese authorities thwarted a coup attempt by a group of military officers.

*Writing by Mahmoud Barakat