The shooting dead of peaceful demonstrators in the Sudanese capital Khartoum is an outrage that deserves to be condemned. A denunciation of the governing transitional military council, which was almost certainly behind the bloody act, is required urgently. This needs to be reinforced by a message that the international community cannot normalise relations with Sudan, designated by the United States as a state sponsor of terrorism, until power is ceded to democratically elected politicians. The generals ought to be disabused of the idea that they can use months of peaceful demonstrations to entrench their own rule. Only elections and civilian government offer a chance to shake off Sudan’s status as an international pariah after decades of isolation.

For months, protesters have been demanding that a civilian government take over the running of the country. The killing of those who had been staging a sit-in in front of the army headquarters for two months is only the most bloody act of terror by the authorities in a series of atrocities against peaceful demonstrators. Today’s violence saw a total lockdown in Khartoum. The revolt had led to the ousting of Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s president since 1989, in April, and his successor, Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf, a day later. Yet the louder the calls for democracy have become, the tighter the junta clings to power.