Sudan protesters resist army manoeuvre

KHARTOUM: Sudanese protesters moved to block an attempt yesterday to break up a sitin outside the Defence Ministry in Khartoum, where demonstrators have been pushing for a quick transition to civilian rule after President Omar alBashir was ousted, a Reuters witness said.

Troops had gathered on three sides of the sitin and tractors were preparing to remove stone and metal barricades, but protesters joined hands and formed rings around the sitin area to prevent them.

The protesters, numbering about 5000 with more arriving, chanted ‘‘Freedom, freedom’’ and ‘‘Revolution, revolution’’, and appealed to the army to protect them.

Earlier, Sudan’s main protest group, the Sudanese Professionals Association, issued an urgent call for people to join the sitin and foil any attempt to disperse it.

‘‘We hope that everyone will head immediately to the areas of the sitin to protect your revolution and your accomplishments,’’ the SPA said.

The sitin outside the compound, which also includes the intelligence headquarters and the presidential residence, began on April 6, after more than three months of protests triggered by a deepening economic crisis.

On Thursday, Sudan’s army announced it had removed and detained Bashir after three decades in power and was setting up a transitional military council to run the country.

Since then the head of the military council and of Sudan’s powerful intelligence services have both been replaced, as protesters have continued to call for change.

The SPA has demanded the immediate handover of power to a civilian transitional government as well as the prosecution of former officials, adding it would exert ‘‘all forms of peaceful pressure to achieve the objectives of the revolution’’. — Reuters