Sudanese communities living abroad stepped in to help injured protesters and pledge further support in transition phase.

Abubaker Abdelmonem Alfadlaby woke up from surgery on December 21, 2018, to find three of his fingers missing.

Three days earlier, during a protest at the University of Khartoum, the 23-year-old student was hit with a tear gas canister launched by security forces.

He picked the canister up to throw it away from himself and the crowd.

"But it ended up exploding in my hand," he told Al Jazeera by phone. "I accepted my destiny, because it happened for my country."

Protests across Sudan were just beginning then, over the rising costs of bread and fuel.

The rallies eventually led to the removal of Omar al-Bashir as president and the establishment of a transitional government.

But protesters were often met with force in the way of tear gas and sometimes live ammunition.

In total, since late last year, more than 200 people have been killed and over 1,000 were injured.