Sudan’s leading general on Sunday lifted a state of emergency that had been imposed in the country following the coup that he led in October last year.
The decision by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of Sudan’s ruling military council, came hours after the Security and Defense Council, Sudan’s highest body that decides on security matters, recommended an end to the state of emergency and the release of all detainees.
The recommendations are meant to facilitate dialogue between the military and the democracy movement, Sudanese Acting Minister of Defense Major General Yassin Ibrahim Yassin said in a video statement.
Photo: AFP
The recommendations came as the country faces protests against military rule and an unknown number of advocates and former officials remain in detention.
Earlier on Sunday, UN Special Representative for Sudan Volker Perthes called for the country’s leaders to lift the state of emergency, decrying the killing of two protesters in a crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators who once again took to the streets of the capital to denounce the coup on Oct. 25 last year.
“Once again: It is time for the violence to stop,” Perthes wrote on Twitter.
Hundreds of people on Saturday marched in Khartoum, where security forces violently dispersed the crowds and chased them in the streets, advocates said.
The two protesters were killed during demonstrations in Khartoum’s Kalakla neighborhood.
One was shot by security forces and the other suffocated after inhaling tear gas, said the Sudan Doctors Committee, which is part of the democracy movement.
Sudan has been plunged into turmoil since the military takeover upended its short-lived transition to democracy after three decades of repressive rule by former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir.
Al-Bashir and his government were removed by the military in a popular uprising in April 2019.
Saturday’s protests were part of relentless demonstrations in the past seven months calling for the military to hand over power to civilians.
At least 98 people have been killed and more than 4,300 wounded in the government crackdown on anti-coup protests since October, the medical group said.
Hundreds of democracy advocates and disposed officials were detained following the coup, although many were later released under pressure from the UN and Western governments.
The protesters demand the removal of the military from power, but the generals have said that they would only hand over power to an elected administration.
They have said that elections are to take place in July next year as planned in a constitutional document governing the transition period.
The UN, the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority in Development — an eight-nation east African regional group — have been leading concerted efforts to bridge the gap between the two sides.
Meanwhile, the trial of four demonstrators accused of killing a senior police officer during a protest earlier this year began on Sunday at the Judicial and Legal Science Institute in Khartoum.
Dozens of protesters gathered in the area in a show of support for the defendants.
The four were detained in raids after Colonel Ali Hamad was stabbed to death as security forces dispersed protesters on Jan. 13.
Their defense lawyers deny the allegations.
Malaysia yesterday installed a motorcycle-riding billionaire sultan as its new king in lavish ceremonies for a post seen as a ballast in times of political crises. The coronation ceremony for Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim, 65, at the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur followed his oath-taking in January as the country’s 17th monarch. Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, with a unique arrangement that sees the throne change hands every five years between the rulers of nine Malaysian states headed by centuries-old Islamic royalty. While chiefly ceremonial, the position of king has in the past few years played an increasingly important role. Royal intervention was
X-37B COMPARISON: China’s spaceplane is most likely testing technology, much like US’ vehicle, said Victoria Samson, an official at the Secure World Foundation China’s shadowy, uncrewed reusable spacecraft, which launches atop a rocket booster and lands at a secretive military airfield, is most likely testing technology, but could also be used for manipulating or retrieving satellites, experts said. The spacecraft, on its third mission, was last month observed releasing an object, moving several kilometers away and then maneuvering back to within a few hundred meters of it. “It’s obvious that it has a military application, including, for example, closely inspecting objects of the enemy or disabling them, but it also has non-military applications,” said Marco Langbroek, a lecturer in optical space situational awareness at Delft
The Philippine Air Force must ramp up pilot training if it is to buy 20 or more multirole fighter jets as it modernizes and expands joint operations with its navy, a commander said yesterday. A day earlier US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the US “will do what is necessary” to see that the Philippines is able to resupply a ship on the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) that Manila uses to reinforce its claims to the atoll. Sullivan said the US would prefer that the Philippines conducts the resupplies of the small crew on the warship Sierra Madre,
AIRLINES RECOVERING: Two-thirds of the flights canceled on Saturday due to the faulty CrowdStrike update that hit 8.5 million devices worldwide occurred in the US As the world continues to recover from massive business and travel disruptions caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, malicious actors are trying to exploit the situation for their own gain. Government cybersecurity agencies across the globe and CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz are warning businesses and individuals around the world about new phishing schemes that involve malicious actors posing as CrowdStrike employees or other tech specialists offering to assist those recovering from the outage. “We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this,” Kurtz said in a statement. “I encourage everyone to remain vigilant