Protests continue as army says 30-year rule of Omar al-Bashir will be replaced by military-led transitional council

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Protesters in Sudan have vowed to continue their campaign for democratic reform just hours after the army announced that the 30-year rule of the country’s president, Omar al-Bashir, would be replaced by a military-led transitional council.

In a statement broadcast on state TV, Sudan’s defence minister said Bashir had been arrested and that the army would would take over for two years, after which elections would be held.

Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf, who is also an army general, said political detainees would be released but that a state of emergency would continue for three months and that a curfew from 10pm to 4am would be enforced for at least a month. All ports will remain closed for 24 hours.

Play Video 1:01 Sudan's defence minister announces state of emergency after arrest of President Bashir - video

The military takeover came after months of protests that escalated at the weekend when thousands of demonstrators began a sit-in outside the defence ministry compound in central Khartoum.

Though the removal from power of Bashir was initially welcomed with joy on the streets of Khartoum elsewhere, that rapidly turned to anger when details of the new government became clear.

The protesters’ rejection of their new rulers raised fears of significant bloodshed if the military decide to crackdown.

The army’s decision to impose a curfew on Thursday night was the most immediate challenge to the pro-democracy campaigners, effectively ordering the thousands who have occupied a crossroads in the centre of Khartoum for five days to disperse.

“Citizens are advised to stick to it for their safety,” said an official statement carried by state-run media about the curfew. “The armed forces and the security council will carry out its duty to uphold peace and security and protect citizens’ livelihoods.”

Ahmed al-Montasser, a spokesman for the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), which has been organising the massive demonstrations, said the military takeover was unacceptable.

“We do not accept the government by the army for the next two years … The regime remains the same. Just five or six people have been replaced by another five or six people from within the regime. This is a challenge to our people,” Montasser said from Germany.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf and the Sudanese military’s chief of staff, Lt Gen Kamal Abdul Murof Al-mahi after being sworn as leaders of the military transitional council. Photograph: Reuters Tv/Reuters

Montasser said protesters currently camped in front of army headquarters would defy the new curfew, despite the significant risk of being attacked by security forces: “We … have faced shotguns and curfews before. We trust in our people that they will challenge and defeat this curfew. Peaceful protest is our method to change the regime in Sudan. Unfortunately there will be casualties but there is no other option.”|

A statement from the Forces of the Declaration of Freedom and Change, a coalition of civil society groups, accused the army of “an internal, military coup d’etat”.

“We shall stand our ground on the public squares and roads that we have liberated with our might, continuing with the popular struggle until state power is reinstated to a civilian transitional government that represents the forces of the revolution,” the statement said.

Activists in Khartoum told the Guardian they would continue their “battle for freedom” while protesters at the sit-in site waved banners saying: “You changed one thief for another thief. We will fight.”

One said: “We feel very bad this afternoon. Like we have had our victory stolen from us. We will have to win it again.”

There were reports of crowds chanting slogans against the military in Atbara, Medani and other towns.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Demonstrators in Khartoum celebrate Bashir’s departure on Thursday. Photograph: Reuters

The protests in Sudan, one of Africa’s biggest and most strategically important countries, erupted on 19 December in the eastern city of Atbara after a government decision to triple the price of bread, but quickly evolved into nationwide demonstrations against Bashir’s rule.

Attempts by security forces to break up the Khartoum sit-in have already killed at least 22 – including five soldiers, who organisers said were defending the protesters – and injured more than 150. Pro-democracy activists said they were concerned that those soldiers who had sided with the demonstrators would now face reprisals.

“They declared their support and now they have disappeared. Our demands remain unchanged: to bring the real criminals to justice,” said Abdelarahim Abayazid Hassan, a veteran Sudanese activist in Finland.

The United Nations has issued calls for calm, with UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres urging “calm and utmost restraint by all”. The UN Security Council will discuss the situation in a closed-door meeting on Friday.

Jeremy Hunt, the British foreign secretary, said on Twitter: “Sudan’s brave people have called for change, but it must be real change. A military council ruling for two years is not the answer.”

Bashir’s fall came just over a week after similar protests in Algeria forced the resignation of president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who had been in power there for 20 years. Many commentators see the two uprisings as part of a new wave of unrest in Africa and the Arab world eight years after the Arab spring of 2011.

Others point to factors such as a very young population, social media and out-of-touch elderly leaders.

The armed forces have played significant roles in a series of political upheavals on the continent and across the Middle East, sometimes exploiting popular anger at the economic mismanagement of long-serving authoritarian rulers to bring about changes that often fall far short of demands of pro-democracy groups and demonstrators.

The army in Sudan won considerable goodwill among protesters by protecting them from security services and pro-Bashir militia in recent days.

The whereabouts of Bashir, 75, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1989, are currently unknown.

The former president survived a series of internal crises over his long and bloody career but his regime was severely weakened by the secession of oil-rich South Sudan in 2011.

Bashir faces genocide charges at the international criminal court relating to extensive human rights abuses perpetrated by Sudanese forces against civilians in Darfur, the western region gripped by conflict since 2003. The UN says 300,000 people have died in the conflict and 2.7 million have fled their homes.

Ibn Auf is a controversial figure himself, blacklisted by Washington for his role as the army’s head of military intelligence and security during the Darfur conflict. He has been defence minister since 2015 and was promoted in February by Bashir to the role of first vice-president.