Sudan’s powerful intelligence chief stepped down on Saturday, two days after the president was ousted, as huge crowds of demonstrators remained encamped outside the country’s military headquarters.

Those demonstrators, who in the past week have numbered in the hundreds of thousands, have proved the most potent force for democratic change to sweep through Sudan in more than three decades. In response to their demands over the past week, Sudan’s armed forces deposed President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the autocrat who had ruled the country since 1989.

That was midday Thursday. But the junta that took power and announced that it intended to rule for the next two years quickly discovered that the demonstrators weren’t going home.

By Friday night, the general who appeared to be in charge of the junta announced that he was stepping down. The move was seen as intended to assuage the demonstrators, who viewed him as not very different from the ousted president — a point their protest chant made clear: “We do not replace a thief with a thief.”