Coup: Army Arrest Ousted Sudanese President Al-Bashir
After 30 turbulent years on the saddle as Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir has been ousted in a bloodless military coup.
Sudan’s Minister of Defense, Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Auf, said in a televised statement on Thursday that a transitional military council, constituted to rule the country for the next two years, will also have civilian members.
Ibn Auf said aside from placing the former President under house arrest; the Military has also imposed a three-month state of emergency in the country as well as suspended the 2005 Sudanese constitution.
According to government sources and a provincial minister, consultations are already under way to form a transitional council to run the country under the Military watch.
Former President Al-Bashir becomes the second African leader, after Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, to be forced out of office in the wake of a tsunami of protests by the citizens.
The Minister of Production and Economic Resources in North Darfur, Adel Hussein, told the Dubai-based al-Hadath TV that “there are consultations to form a military council to take over power after President Bashir stepped down”.
Sudanese sources confirmed the report that al-Bashir was at the presidential residence under ‘heavy guard’.
The sources stated that the military will make further announcement soon, even as the State television said as troops were deployed in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital.
“The armed forces will present an important statement shortly. Be ready for it,” the announcement on state television read, without giving further details.
The army and security services deployed troops around the Defence Ministry and on major roads and bridges in the capital as thousands of people flocked to an anti-government protest outside the ministry, a witness said.
Tens of thousands of Sudanese took to the streets in the centre of Khartoum in jubilation, dancing and chanting anti-Bashir slogans. Protesters outside the defence ministry chanted: “It has fallen, we won.”
State television and radio played patriotic music, reminding older Sudanese of how military takeovers unfolded during previous episodes of civil unrest.
A former paratrooper, Bashir seized power in a bloodless coup in 1989, but has been a divisive figure, who has managed his way through one internal crisis after another while withstanding attempts by the West to weaken him.
Sudan has suffered prolonged periods of isolation since 1993, when the U.S. added Bashir’s government to its list of terrorism sponsors for harboring Islamist militants. Washington followed up with sanctions four years later.
Born January 7, 1944, Bashir has also been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague over allegations of genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region during an insurgency that began in 2003.
The latest crisis has escalated since the weekend, when thousands of demonstrators began camping out outside the Defence Ministry compound in central Khartoum, where Bashir’s residence is located.
Clashes erupted on Tuesday between soldiers trying to protect the protesters and intelligence and security personnel trying to disperse them.
The Information Ministry said a police report showed that at least 11 people died in the clashes, including six members of the armed forces.
Since December 19, 2018, Sudan has been rocked by persistent protests sparked by the government’s attempt to raise the price of bread, and an economic crisis that has led to fuel and cash shortages.
Opposition figures have called for the military to help negotiate an end to Bashir’s nearly three decades in power and a transition to democracy.
The demonstrators at the defence ministry had said that they wanted to submit a petition for the armed forces to take their side in their attempt to remove Bashir and his Islamist-backed administration – Agency reports
