At least four dead in protests in Khartoum after ousted president charged and transition deal moves closer

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Violence has flared in Sudan’s capital Khartoum after the military council and opposition groups said they had agreed to a power structure for the country’s transition following the removal of President Omar al-Bashir last month.

Heavy gunfire was heard late into the evening, and the council said a military police officer and a protester had been killed and many protesters wounded. A doctors’ committee linked to protest movement later said four more protesters had been shot dead. State TV put the death toll at one police officer and three protesters.

The council accused armed groups unhappy with progress towards a political deal of opening fire at protest sites. Protesters said counter-revolutionaries linked to the former regime were inciting violence.

Earlier on Monday, leaders of protests in Sudan said a breakthrough agreement had been reached with the military on transitional authorities to run the country.

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The news came shortly after the prosecutor general’s office said Bashir had been charged over the killings of protesters during anti-regime demonstrations that led to the end of his rule.

“At today’s meeting, we agreed on the structure of the authorities and their powers,” said Taha Osman, a spokesman for the protest movement. “The authorities are as follows: the sovereign council, the cabinet and the legislative body.”

Osman said another meeting would be held on Tuesday “to discuss the period of transition and the composition of the authorities”.

The talks about handing power to a civilian administration follow a deadlock in negotiations between Sudan’s army rulers and protest leaders.

The apparent breakthrough came as it was announced that the acting prosecutor general, Al Waleed Sayyed Ahmed, had charged Bashir and others “for inciting and participating in the killing of demonstrators”.

The charges form part of an investigation into the death of a medic during a protest in Khartoum’s eastern district of Burri.

According to a doctors’ committee linked to the protest movement, 90 protesters were killed in protest-related violence after demonstrations began in December over a government decision to triple the price of bread. The official death toll is 65.

The mass protests, which drove Bashir from office after almost 30 years in power, were still being held outside the army headquarters in central Khartoum, with the aim of forcing the ruling council to cede power to civilian rule.

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Protest leaders Omar al-Digeir and Satea al-Haj were among those who attended the talks on behalf of the Alliance for Freedom and Change behind closed doors at a convention centre in central Khartoum.

Before the meeting, dozens of protesters blocked Nile Street, a major avenue in the capital, for the second consecutive day after police stopped people from heading to a sit-in outside the army complex that has been staged since 6 April.

Following a deadlock in negotiations, the protest alliance on Saturday said the army generals had invited the movement for a new round of talks.

The generals in earlier talks had proposed the new council be led by the military, while the protest leaders want a majority civilian body.

Late last month, the alliance – which brings together protest organisers, opposition parties and rebel groups – handed the generals its proposals for a civilian-led transitional government.

But the generals pointed to what they call “many reservations” about the alliance’s roadmap. They have singled out the alliance’s silence on the constitutional position of Islamic sharia law, which was the guiding principle of all legislation under Bashir’s rule.

Demonstrators converged on the military complex last month seeking the army’s help in ousting Bashir. Days later, the army ousted the veteran leader, but a 10-member military council took power.

Although the boisterous crowds have dwindled during recent days – a consequence, it is thought, of high temperatures – protesters have stayed resolute, gathering in their thousands after breaking the daytime fast during the holy month of Ramadan.