Ahmed Mustafa, AFP | Sudanese demonstrators gather near the military headquarters in the capital Khartoum on April 14, 2019.

Sudan’s military council has appointed a new intelligence chief and removed defence minister Awad Ibn Aouf from his role, a spokesman said on Sunday.

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Lieutenant General Abu Bakr Mustafa will replace Salah Abdallah Mohamed Saleh, known as Salah Gosh, as chief of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), Shams El Din Kabbashi Shinto said.

Shinto also announced the sacking of Sudan’s ambassadors to Washington and Geneva; and said all army and police officers who participated in street protests that led to the ousting of former President Omar al-Bashir last week would be released.

Thousands of protesters remained encamped outside Khartoum’s army headquarters to keep up pressure on a military council that took power after ousting Bashir on Thursday.

FRANCE 24's Julia Steers reports on the latest from Sudan

'Immediately' hand over power

On Sunday, they demanded the country’s military rulers “immediately” hand power over to a civilian government that should then bring ousted leader Omar al-Bashir to justice.

The organisation that spearheaded the protests against Bashir, the Sudanese Professionals Association, called on the military council “to immediately transfer power to a civilian government”.

The SPA also demanded the next “transitional government and the armed forces to bring Bashir and all the chiefs of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS)... to justice”.

“The Sudanese Professionals Association calls on its supporters to continue with the sit-in until the revolution achieves its demands,” it added.

Earlier the military council met with political parties and urged them to agree on an “independent figure” to be the country’s prime minister, an AFP correspondent present at the meeting said.

'Civilian state based on freedom'

“We want to set up a civilian state based on freedom, justice and democracy,” a council member, Lieutenant General Yasser al-Ata, told several political parties, urging them to agree on the figures to sit in civilian government.

The protesters have insisted civilian representatives must join the military council.

A 10-member delegation representing the protesters delivered their demands during talks with the council late Saturday, according to a statement by the Alliance for Freedom and Change umbrella group spearheading the rallies.

The foreign ministry urged the international community to back the military council “to achieve the Sudanese goal of democratic transition”, it said in a statement.

The council chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan was “committed to having a complete civilian government and the role of the council will be to maintain the sovereignty of the country”, it added.

Talks between protest leaders and Sudan’s new rulers were followed Sunday by a meeting between Washington’s top envoy to Khartoum, Steven Koutsis, and the military council’s deputy.

'Preserve security and stability'

Mohammad Hamdan Daglo, widely known as Himeidti, told Koutsis “about the measures taken by the military council to preserve the security and stability of the country”, the official SUNA news agency reported.

Himeidti is a field commander for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) counter-insurgency unit, which rights groups have accused of abuses in the war-torn Darfur region.

On Saturday, the military council’s new chief General Burhan vowed to dismantle Bashir’s regime, lifting a night-time curfew with immediate effect.

He also pledged that individuals implicated in killing protesters would face justice and that protesters detained under a state of emergency imposed by Bashir during his final weeks in power would be freed.

Burhan took the oath of office on Friday after his predecessor General Awad Ibn Aouf stepped down little more than 24 hours after Bashir’s ouster.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

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