KHARTOUM, Sudan

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in the capital Khartoum on Saturday to protest this week’s military takeover in Sudan, amid heavy security deployments.

Protesters marched in the Al-Kalakla neighborhood in the southern part of Khartoum and in Bahri, the northern twin city of the capital, according to an Anadolu Agency reporter.

Demonstrators chanted anti-military slogans and waved anti-coup banners, amid calls for the resignation of the head of the ruling military council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, eyewitnesses said.

Ahead of the protests, the Sudanese military deployed extra forces across the capital Khartoum and closed main raids and bridges linking the capital to other cities.

Saturday’s protests were called by the Sudanese Professional Association (SPA), an activist coalition, to demand the restoration of the transitional civilian government in Sudan.

On Monday, Sudan’s ruling military council announced a state of emergency and dissolved the transitional sovereign council and the government, hours after detaining Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and ministers in his civilian government.

The council also suspended some provisions of the constitutional document outlining the political transition in Sudan.

Deep tensions escalated between the military and the civilian administration in Sudan after a failed military coup last month, amid rival protests in Khartoum.

Before the military takeover, Sudan was administered by a sovereign council of military and civilian officials, which oversaw the transition period until elections slated for 2023, as part of a precarious power-sharing pact between the military and the Forces for Freedom and Change coalition.