KHARTOUM: Sudan’s army has ousted veteran president Omar al-Bashir, but protestors against his iron-fisted rule denounced a “coup” and thousands rallied outside army headquarters as a night-time curfew kicked in.
In a sombre televised address on Thursday, Defence Minister Awad Ibnouf announced “the toppling of the regime” and said Bashir had been detained in “a secure place”, bringing an end to his three decades in power.
Thousands of protestors were staging a sit-in for the sixth night running outside Khartoum army headquarters as the military council’s curfew began at 10pm despite growing international pressure to hand over to civilian rule.
The army had earlier warned protestors not to defy the curfew.
State television later broadcast footage of him taking the oath to become head of the council, alongside his new deputy, army chief of staff Lieutenant General Kamal Abdelmarouf.
Bashir, who swept to power in a 1989 coup, was one of Africa’s longest-serving presidents and is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of genocide and war crimes.
Organisers of the protests that have rocked Sudan since December vowed to press on until the whole regime was swept aside.
The protestors’ Alliance for Freedom and Change said the regime had kept “the same faces”, and urged demonstrators “to continue their sit-in in front of army headquarters and across all regions and in the streets”.
Alaa Salah, who has become an icon of the protest movement after a video of her leading demonstrators’ chants went viral, said that “change will not happen with Bashir’s entire regime hoodwinking Sudanese civilians through a military coup”.
Thursday’s announcement meant “we have not achieved anything”, said Adel, a protestor outside the army headquarters, where defiant demonstrators have braved tear gas and gunfire to keep up the sit-in.
The opposition Sudanese Congress Party called for the establishment of a joint military and civilian council to rule for a four-year transitional period.
It also urged the army to give executive powers to civilians.
UN chief Antonio Guterres called for a transition that would meet the “democratic aspirations” of the Sudanese people and appealed for “calm and utmost restraint by all”, his spokesman said.
That came after the African Union decried Bashir’s military ouster, saying it was “not the appropriate response to the challenges facing Sudan and the aspirations of its people”.
Army vehicles carrying troops were seen deploying across the centre of Khartoum from early Thursday.
Troops raided the offices of the Islamic Movement, the ideological wing of Bashir’s ruling National Congress Party, witnesses told AFP.
Martial music was played on state television as soldiers ordered the TV to halt its normal programming ahead of Ibnouf’s announcement.
Outside army headquarters, dozens of joyful protesters early Thursday climbed on top of land-cruisers and armoured vehicles that had been posted to protect them from intervention by other branches of the security forces. – AFP
