Sudan coup leader steps down after protests
Military council says it wants to talk to the people over transition after ousting president
THE Sudanese defence minister who declared himself head of a provisional military government after ousting President Omar al-bashir in a coup stepped down last night, after just a day in power. Awad Ibn Auf and Kamal Absel Maarouf, his deputy, both resigned in a statement issued last night.
Earlier in the day, protesters had chanted that they would stay on the streets until Mr Auf left.
Lt Gen Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan will take over as head of the military transitional council.
Sudan’s new military rulers said they were ready for dialogue with demonstrators after hundreds of thousands of people defied a curfew to occupy central Khartoum for a sixth night.
But the generals warned they would not tolerate “chaos” and ruled out ex- traditing Mr Bashir, the dictator they deposed in a coup on Thursday, to face charges of war crimes.
“We are not against the demands of the people, we are for the demands of the people, and we have to achieve them,” Zein Abedeen, the general tasked with leading talks with the protesters said in a press conference.
“We have to adhere to civilised methods and today we will start a dialogue with the political groups, who are invited to hear from us what we have in mind and what they have in mind.” The Sudanese Professionals Association, which has led months of huge anti-government protests, said the “coup makers are not eligible” to oversee change and demanded an immediate handover to a “traditional civilian government”. Mr Bashir, who ruled Sudan for 30 years, was deposed on Thursday by his own military after clashes between security services and troops sympathetic to the protests.
Leaders of the protest movement immediately rejected the announcement that a military transitional council would assume control of the country and impose a three-month state of emergency.
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators spent a sixth night on the streets outside army headquarters in Khartoum on Thursday and yesterday, in deliberate defiance of a 10pm curfew imposed by the military when they announced their coup. Protesters said there were no attempts by authorities to enforce the curfew.
Several soldiers joined the protest, reinforcing claims by demonstrators that the junior and middle ranks of the army are reluctant to follow the orders of a top brass widely considered to be closely allied to Mr Bashir.
In the morning, protests continued, with festive demonstrators shouting “down with military rule” and parading an enormous Sudanese flag.