By Leonard Kamugisha Akida
@AkidaParrots
Protestors in Sudan were today Saturday 13th April, 2019 flashed ululating and cheering up on receiving the resignation news of the feared military council ruler General Ahmed Award Ibn Auf, a few days after seizing power from the former President Omar All Bashir in an infamous coup.
The announcement by Gen Ahmed came late on Friday as tens of thousands of protestors in Sudan demanded for a civilian government. This mounted much pressure on the self declared interim military council leader to announce own step down on a State Television.
“I, the head of military council, announce I am giving up the post…., this is for the benefit of our nation, without having to look at special interests, big or small that may impade its progress,” He announced.
He also announced Lieutenant General Abdulah Fattah Burhan as his successor and was immediately sworn in as a new head of the military council. Gen Ibn Auf said he had conference in Burhan. However, he called for unity and quick solutions of Sudanese problems.
‘I would like to recommend that you work together and reach a solution very speedily,’ He added.
According to the hundreds of thousand protestors in the Sudan’s capital city Khartoum, Gen Award Ibn Auf was viewed as not being different from the ousted President Bashir thus demanding for his step down which to them proved the most potent force for democratic change to sweep through Sudan for over the last three decades.
The protestors have vowed to continue demonstrations until they see power being transferred into the hands of the civilians. These fear that the Sudanese security will not respond to their democratic transition calls.
‘We now want to see power being handed over to the civilians, this is a demonstration and freedom we aim to achieve,’ One of the protestors told The Parrots.
Burhan, who was appointed as al-Bashir’s chief of staff and head of the ground forces in February, did not have the “same tainted record” as that of other al-Bashir era officials, she said, citing accusations of war crimes against both the former president and his successor during the 2003-2008 war in Sudan’s western region of Darfur.
The new leader was one of the generals who reached out to protesters at the week-long encampment near the military headquarters, meeting with them face to face, and listening to their views.
The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), which spearheaded the months-long demonstrations that triggered al-Bashir’s overthrow on Thursday, hailed Ibn Auf’s departure as a “triumph of the will of the masses”.
SPA called on residents of Khartoum to continue their days-long sit-in outside the army headquarters, in defiance of a nighttime curfew imposed by the army, until their demands for a civilian-led transitional government and democratic reforms, as outlined in the January Declaration of Freedom and Change, were met.
They called for a “total strike until the full transfer of power” and urged supporters elsewhere in the country to take to the streets outside the military’s various posts “until these demands are fully implemented”.https://theparrots08.blogspot.comIbn Auf’s resignation came hours after a spokesman for the military council promised to hold talks with all political groups in Sudan and declared it had no “ambitions to hold the reins of power”.
The council was “ready to step down as early as a month if a government is formed”, said council member Omar Zain al-Abideen.
Sudan’s military council also asked all “political forces” in the country to name two representatives by Saturday for a dialogue on the country’s transition, according to SUNA news agency, adding the time for the meeting would be set once it had received the names from all of the groups.
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