Sudan's military removes al-Bashir: All the latest updates
Written by Millennium on April 12, 2019
Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has been removed by the military after months of anti-government protests against his three-decade rule.
General Ahmed Ibn Auf was sworn in on Thursday evening as chief of a new military council that will rule the country for two years, hours after declaring that Sudan’s long-time ruler had been overthrown and arrested.
The coup and installation of the council was rejected by the protesters, who said the moves did not meet their long-standing demands for a civilian-led government.
Since December, Sudan has witnessed persistent protests sparked by rising food prices that quickly escalated into wider calls for al-Bashir’s departure.
The latest crisis escalated on April 6 when thousands of demonstrators began a sit-in outside the army headquarters in the capital, Khartoum. Dozens of people have been killed in protest-related violence since the start of the demonstrations.
Here are all the latest updates:
Thursday, April 11, 2019:
SPA urges ‘revolutionaries’ to keep defying curfew
The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), one of the groups at the forefront of the demonstrations, calls on “all the revolutionaries” to continue their sit-in outside the army headquarters in Khartoum.
“Stay there and secure the barricades and prepare for Friday prayers and prayers for the absent,” it says in a Twitter post.
According to the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors, an SPA affiliate, 35 people have been killed since the sit-in started on April 6.
Opposition leader: We will continue until end
Omer Eldigair, the leader of the Sudanese Congress party, rejects the military’s statement.
“We will not accept half victory. We need the whole and complete victory as anticipated and wanted by our martyrs. Thus, the Declaration for Freedom and Change decided to continue the sit-in in front of the General Command’s headquarters,” he says in Khartoum.
“The citizens will also continue to take to the streets and be available in all squares here in the capital and everywhere nationwide. Don’t be scared and don’t retreat as we will continue our path until the end.”
