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Sudan’s army removes President Bashir after 30 years in power

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Thousands of people continued to pack the streets of Khartoum on Thursday afternoon, as protest organisers in Sudan rejected the army’s announcement that the 30-year rule of President Omar al-Bashir would be replaced by a military-led transitional council.

In a statement broadcast on state TV, Sudan’s defence minister said Bashir had been arrested and that a military council would take over for two years, after which elections would be held.

Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf, who is also an army general, said political detainees would be released but that a state of emergency would continue for three months and that a curfew from 10pm to 4am would be enforced for at least a month. All ports will remain closed for 24 hours.

Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf makes a statement on state TV on Thursday.
Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf makes a statement on state TV on Thursday. Photograph: Reuters Tv/Reuters
The army takeover came after months of protests that escalated at the weekend when thousands of demonstrators began a sit-in outside the defence ministry compound in central Khartoum.

The protesters’ rejection of their new rulers will raise fear of significant bloodshed in the hours and days to come.

“For a long time, examining what’s going on in the state and the corruption that is going on,” Ibn Auf said. “The poor are poorer and the rich are still rich and there are no equal chances for the same people.”

Though the removal from power of Bashir was initially welcomed with joy on the streets of Khartoum elsewhere, that rapidly turned to anger when details of the new government became clear.

The army’s decision to impose a curfew tonight is the most immediate challenge to the pro-democracy campaigners, effectively ordering the thousands who have occupied a crossroads in the centre of Khartoum for five days to disperse. .

A spokesman of the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), which has been organising the massive demonstrations, said the military takeover was unacceptable.

“We do not accept the government by the army for the next two years … The regime remains the same. Just five or six people have been replaced y another five or six people from within the regime. This is a challenge to our people,” Ahmed al-Montasser, a spokesman for the SPA, said from Germany.

Montasser said protesters currently camped in front of army headquarters would defy the new curfew, despite the significant risk of being attacked by security forces.

“We have been protesting against this regime non-violently, and we have faced shotguns and curfews before. We trust in our people that they will challenge and defeat this curfew. Peaceful protest is our method to change the regime in Sudan. Unfortunately there will be casualties but there is no other options,” Montasser said.

Activists in Khartoum told the Guardian they would continue their “battle for freedom” while protesters at the sit-in site waved banners saying: “You changed one thief for another thief. We will fight”.

There were reports of crowds chanting slogans against the military in Atbara, Medani and other towns.

Shortly after dawn on Thursday the military seized control of state television and trailed “an important announcement” without giving further details, as reports emerged hat There were reports that several senior figures close to Bashir in the ruling National Congress party had been detained.

As anticipation built, state television and radio played patriotic music, reminding older Sudanese of how past military takeovers unfolded in the country, and images of recent protests. Despite a lack of concrete information about what was happening for much of the morning, tens of thousands of Sudanese marched through the centre of Khartoum in jubilation, dancing and chanting anti-Bashir slogans. Protesters outside the defence ministry chanted: “It has fallen, we won.”

By late afternoon, the mood had soured significantly in light of Ibn Auf’s statement. Many chanted “Fall, again!” – adapting an earlier anti-Bashir chant of “Fall, that’s all!”.

There were sporadic protests elsewhere in the country, and some reports of shooting by security services.

The protests in Sudan, one of Africa’s biggest and most strategically important countries, erupted on 19 December in the eastern city of Atbara after a government decision to triple the price of bread, but quickly evolved into nationwide demonstrations against Bashir’s rule.

Attempts by security forces to break up the Khartoum sit-in have already killed at least 22 – including five soldiers, who organisers said were defending the protesters – and injured more than 150. Pro-democracy activists said they were concerned that those soldiers who sided with the demonstrators would now face reprisals.

“They declared their support and now they have disappeared. Our demands remain unchanged: to bring the real criminals to justice,” said Abdelarahim Abayazid Hassan, a veteran Sudanese activist in Finland.

Bashir is a former paratrooper who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1989 and has managed his way through one internal crisis after another while withstanding attempts by the west to weaken him.

The 75-year-old faces genocide charges at the international criminal court relating to extensive human rights abuses perpetrated by Sudanese forces against civilians in Darfur, the western region gripped by conflict since 2003 when rebels took up arms against the government, accusing it of discrimination and neglect. The UN says 300,000 people have died in the conflict and 2.7 million have fled their homes.

However, many other leaders and governments in Africa have defended Bashir. In October 2017, the US eased sanctions against Sudan, citing improved humanitarian access, the mitigation of conflicts within the country and progress on counter-terrorism. Human rights organisations condemned the move.

Ibn Auf is a controversial figure himself, blacklisted by Washington for his role as the army’s head of military intelligence and security during the Darfur conflict. He has been defence minister since 2015 and was promoted in February by Bashir to the role of first-vice president.

[source: The Guardian]
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