The world must not look away after the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Khartoum

In Omdurman, just below the confluence of the Blue Nile and White Nile, stands a large, shack-like structure that serves as a popular restaurant. The building’s dusty car park provides a memorable vantage point from which to gaze down upon Africa’s mightiest river. Yet last week, any casual onlooker might have preferred to look away – for there was blood in the water.

Following the security forces’ brutal crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Khartoum on Monday, the bodies of dozens of murdered victims – the opposition says 40 in total – were callously dumped in the Nile and left to float down the river. In all, more than 100 people were killed and about 500 wounded, although the ruling junta disputes these figures. Sporadic violence is continuing.

After six months of protests that toppled Omar al-Bashir, the country’s dictator for 30 years, and sparked hopes of a democratic renaissance, Sudan’s dream of change appeared to shatter in an uncontrolled orgy of gunfire, assaults and rape. Britain and the US have condemned the killings. The UN and the African Union have called for an investigation. But it is already clear who is to blame.

The so-called transitional military council, led by Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, stubbornly refused during weeks of negotiations to accept majority civilian control of a proposed interim government – the opposition’s key demand. As a result, peaceful street protests continued. Exasperated by such defiance, and possibly egged on by his hardline Saudi and Egyptian backers, Burhan ordered the crackdown.

Much of the ensuing horror may be laid at the door of the paramilitary rapid support forces and their commander, Burhan’s deputy, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagolo. Known as “Hemedti”, Dagolo was already notorious for leading Janjaweed militia during the Darfur genocide in the early 00s. Last week, he applied his SS-like methods to the capital’s unarmed citizens.

Subsequent attempts by Burhan’s junta to control information reaching the outside world, by blocking the internet and banning al-Jazeera journalists, have failed miserably. Dagolo’s claim to be targeting criminal “rogue elements” among the demonstrators is risible. These two men, and other relics of Bashir’s regime, are guilty of premeditated murder. If they deny it, they must allow an independent inquiry to establish their innocence or otherwise.

At the same time, the principal demand of the opposition alliance, represented by the Declaration of Freedom and Change Forces, for a transfer of power to a temporary, civilian-led administration must be honoured without further delay. Only then is there a chance of calm and creation of a timetable for internationally monitored elections.

Mediation by Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, who spoke separately to the two sides in Khartoum on Friday, was an important first step towards resumed dialogue. But he swiftly returned to Addis Ababa. What is needed now is concerted pressure on the junta to keep the peace. With Khartoum’s inhabitants still cowering in fear as lawless paramilitaries roam the streets, the terrible alternative – a descent into civil war – moves ever closer.

Does the necessary international will exist? The US, which for years imperiously demanded democratic reform, has done next to nothing to help, now Sudan’s watershed moment has finally arrived. The British government, the former colonial power, has huffed and puffed. Harriett Baldwin, minister for Africa, told Sudan’s ambassador that Britain was “utterly appalled” and demanded a halt to “barbaric attacks”. Is that it?

As is routinely the case these days, Russia and China have blocked unified UN security council action. The African Union appears content to leave it all to Abiy Ahmed. And thus, it seems, it may be up to the junta’s main backers and paymasters – Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt – to rein in their vicious charges. Let’s hope they act before more bodies come floating down the Nile.