/ 11 April 2019

Bashir ousted and arrested

Sudanese demonstrators wave their national flag as they arrive for a protest rally demanding Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir to step down outside the Defence Ministry in Khartoum
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is wanted for war crimes and genocide charges by the International Criminal Court.(AFP)

After nearly three decades in power, Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir has been ousted and arrested, the defence minister said on state TV.

Minister Awad Ibn Ouf said the army had decided to oversee a two-year transitional period followed by elections, adding that a three-month state of emergency was being put in place.

Sudan’s feared intelligence service, the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) said it was freeing all the country’s political prisoners, state media reported.

“The National Intelligence and Security Service has announced it is releasing all political detainees across the country,” the official SUNA news agency said.

“We are calling on our people to control themselves and not to attack anybody or government and private properties,” the Alliance for Freedom and Change (AFC), the umbrella group that is spearheading the protest movement, said in a statement.

“Anyone found doing this will be punished by law. Our revolution is peaceful, peaceful, peaceful.”

Protests against Bashir, who has ruled Sudan since 1989, started on December 19 last year. The demonstrations were initially in protest over the rising costs of bread and fuel, but soon widened to call for the overthrow of Bashir.

In less than a week, the demonstrations, which began in the city of Atbara, quickly spread across the country including the capital, Khartoum.

Since its independence, Sudan has periodically suffered military coups, including the one that brought Bashir to power. Critically, the demonstrations that now seem to have put paid to Bashir, constantly called on the all-powerful military’s backing.