Four demonstrators were killed Thursday in the Omdurman area of ​​Khartoum by the Sudanese security forces, confirmed the Independent Doctors' Committee, after thousands of demonstrators took the streets to reject the military rule.

According to the Committee, at least 52 people were killed in protest-related violence.

The Sudanese security forces fired tear gas at the demonstrators, a few hundred meters from the presidential palace, the headquarters of General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, the army chief who led the coup in power more than two months ago. 

Web monitoring group NetBlocks said mobile internet services were also cut.

Since Wednesday evening, the authorities have blocked roads leading to the capital, Khartoum, and placed containers on the bridges linking the Sudanese capital with its suburbs.

The authorities also installed new surveillance cameras on major thoroughfares for Thursday's protests.

Witnesses reported similar anti-coup protests in Wad Madani, south of the capital, and the cities of Kassala and Port Sudan in the east.

Al-Burhan, who held civilian leader Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok effectively under house arrest for weeks, reinstated him on November 21 under a deal promising elections for July 2023.

Sudan still has no functioning government, a prerequisite for the resumption of international aid cut in response to the coup.

More than 14 million people, a third of Sudan's population, will need humanitarian aid next year, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the highest level for a decade.

Al-Burhan promised to hold the first multi-party elections in decades in July 2023.

However, this did not convince the supporters of civilian rule, in a country that lived under military power for 65 years after its independence.