Sudan president is ousted after 30 years

SUDAN’S ruler was ousted in a military coup yesterday after 30 years in power.

President Omar al Bashir – who attracted global condemnation for his bloody crackdown in Darfur – was deposed after months of protests fuelled by the country’s economic crisis. Mr Bashir had himself swept to power following a coup in 1989.

Defence minister Awad Ibn Ouf announced Mr Bashir’s arrest on state television, and revealed there will be a transitional two years of military rule.

He said troops had for too long observed the former president’s ‘bad administration, systemic corruption, absence of justice [and] the blocked horizon for all people, especially the youth’. However, his comments risk enraging protesters, who want civilians rather than soldiers to lead the country until free and fair elections take place.

The coup comes just over a week after similar protests in Algeria forced the resignation of Abdelaziz Bouteflika after two decades in power.