KHARTOUM: Organisers of protests for the ouster of Sudanese president Omar al Bashir rejected his toppling by the army on Thursday as a “coup conducted by the regime” and vowed to keep up their campaign.
“The regime has conducted a military coup by bringing back the same faces and the same institutions which our people rose against,” the Alliance for Freedom and Change said in a statement.
“We all reject what has been mentioned in the coup statement issued by the regime,” said the alliance, an umbrella group of grass-roots organisers and opposition parties and rebel groups.
“We call on our people to continue their sit-in in front of army headquarters and across all regions and in the streets.”
Sudan’s military ousted President Omar al Bashir on Thursday, ending his 30 years in power in response to escalating popular protests. The defence minister announced military rule for two years, imposing an emergency clampdown that risks enflaming protesters who have demanded civilian democratic change.
Defence Minister Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Auf said Al Bashir was under arrest in a “safe place” and a military council was now running the country. Sudanese sources said Bashir was at the presidential residence under heavy guard.
The minister declared the formation of a military transitional council, the cancellation of the constitution and a state of emergency for three months.
After the military’s announcement, protest organisers vowed to continue their rallies until a civilian transitional government is formed. Tens of thousands of protesters were massed on Thursday at a sit-in they have been holding outside the military’s General Command headquarters in Khartoum.
The military’s coup on Thursday brought an end to a president who came to power in a coup of his own in 1989, backed by the military and hard-liners, and who had survived multiple blows that could have brought him down.
SUPPORT TO PEOPLE
Egypt expressed its “complete support” for Sudan’s people and their army in the political transition.
Cairo voiced its full belief in “the ability of the brotherly Sudanese people and their loyal national army to overcome the challenges of this critical stage... in order to achieve stability, prosperity and development,” a foreign ministry statement said.
The ministry stressed that Egypt respects Sudan’s sovereignty and its national decisions.
CALL FOR CALM
Russia on Thursday called for calm in Sudan and expressed hope that close bilateral ties would not be threatened, irrespective of who was in power.
“We are monitoring this situation very carefully,” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“And we are hoping that first and foremost there won’t be an escalation that could claim human lives,” he said, calling the protests an “internal affair”.
“We expect that whatever the outcome, Russian-Sudanese relations” will be a priority for Khartoum, Peskov said.
Russia has been trying to expand its footprint in Africa and said in January that it had sent “instructors” to Sudan, following reports of sightings of Russian-speaking soldiers in Khartoum. — Agencies
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