KHARTOUM - Sudanese shuttered shops and barricaded Khartoum streets on Tuesday in a civil disobedience campaign to protest one of the bloodiest days since an October coup derailed the country’s democratic transition.

Security forces on Monday killed at least seven people during anti-coup protests by thousands, bringing the total fatalities from the crackdown on anti-coup demonstrations to 71, according to medics.  Sudan’s main civilian bloc, the Forces for Freedom and Change, called for two days of civil disobedience to begin on Tuesday.

“Shop closed for mourning,” said a series of small signs posted on the closed outlets at the sprawling Sajane construction supplies market in Khartoum. One of the merchants, Othman el-Sherif, was among those shot dead on Monday.

In several other parts of Khartoum, too, many pharmacies and other shops were shuttered, according to an AFP correspondent. 

Sudan’s University for Science and Technology suspended all activities as part of the civil disobedience, according to an official statement.  As they do regularly, police on Tuesday fired tear gas at dozens of protesters setting up roadbloacks, this time on the streets of east Khartoum, according to an AFP correspondent. 

After Monday’s deaths the United Nations special representative Volker Perthes condemned the use of live ammunition and the US embassy criticised “violent tactics of Sudanese security forces,” the latest such appeals by world powers, which have not curbed a rising death toll. Washington’s Assistant Secretary of State Molly Phee and special envoy for the Horn of Africa, David Satterfield, were expected in Khartoum.