\n Sudanese protestors vowed Friday to chase out the country's new military rulers, as the army offered talks on forming a civilian government after it ousted president Omar al-Bashir.\n<\/p>\n
\n But the military council warned it would tolerate no breaches of security, after protesters defied a night-time curfew following Bashir's Thursday fall, keeping up their sit-outside the army headquarters.\n<\/p>\n
\n Thousands of men and women, dressed in white, also braved the searing Sudanese heat on Friday to offer prayers outside the sprawling complex, witnesses said.\n<\/p>\n
\n The imam leading the prayers was draped in the Sudanese flag.\n<\/p>\n
\n Hussein Mohamed, an elderly man from Omdurman, said he was attending the protest for the first time in response to a call to hold Friday prayers there.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"It is too, too hot but I'm impressed by what our young men and women are doing here,\" he said. \"I'll surely come again.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Many Coptic Christians were also there, serving food and drinks to Muslims as they got ready for prayers.\n<\/p>\n
\n Some also brought mats for the worshippers.\n<\/p>\n
\n The head of the military council's political committee, Lieutenant General Omar Zain al-Abdin, confirmed that a day after he was deposed, Bashir remained in custody.\n<\/p>\n
\n The army takeover brought to an end 30 years of rule by Bashir, one of Africa's longest serving leaders.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Transition may be shorter'-\n<\/p>\n
\n But Abdin said the council would never extradite him or any other Sudanese citizen.\n<\/p>\n
\n The International Criminal Court (ICC) has a longstanding arrest warrant against Bashir for suspected genocide and war crimes.\n<\/p>\n
\n The military council had announced a two-year transition period, but Sudan's UN envoy told the Security Council in New York that this could be shortened \"depending on developments on the ground and agreements between stakeholders\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Protesters have held mass demonstrations for four months demanding Bashir's overthrow, defying repeated deadly attempts by riot police and the feared intelligence services to crush them.\n<\/p>\n
\n But when his overthrow was finally announced on Thursday in an address to the nation, by Defence Minister Awad Ibnouf, it was met not with joy but anger.\n<\/p>\n
\n Protest leaders have dismissed the transitional military council as the \"same old faces\" from the regime which led the country into multiple conflicts along with worsening poverty and social inequality.\n<\/p>\n
\n Thursday's announcement meant \"we have not achieved anything\", said one protester who gave his name only as Adel.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We will not stop our revolution. We are calling for the regime to step down, not only Bashir.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Analysts said Bashir's overthrow in a \"palace coup\" made the transition to democracy in Sudan a more distant prospect.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Ironically, the prospects for democratic transition may be more remote than when Bashir was in power, as there's no centre of power with which to negotiate,\" said Alex de Waal, a Sudan specialist at Tufts University.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The power struggle within the security cabal that took power yesterday is just beginning,\" de Waal said. \"Bashir had kept their rivalries and ambitions in check; his removal brings in its wake an unregulated uncertainty.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n - Calls for restraint -\n<\/p>\n
\n Protesters at the sit-in said their quarrel was with the commanders who had led the coup, not the rank and file.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"This is now our square. We have taken it and won't leave until victory is achieved,\" said one protester who gave his name as Abu Obeida.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We broke the curfew. We will continue doing it until we have a civilian transitional government.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Multiple world powers have made calls for a peaceful transition.\n<\/p>\n
\n Washington urged the military council \"to exercise restraint and to allow space for civilian participation within the government\".\n<\/p>\n
\n The European Union urged the army to carry out a \"swift\" handover to civilian rule.\n<\/p>\n
\n The African Union decried Bashir's military overthrow, saying it was \"not the appropriate response to the challenges facing Sudan and the aspirations of its people\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Most shops and offices were closed on Friday, a day of prayer and rest in Sudan.\n<\/p>\n
\n But crowds again began thronging the streets of Khartoum after the main weekly Islamic prayers, raising fears of a confrontation between protesters and the security forces.\n<\/p>\n
\n The ousted president stands accused of unleashing Arab militias in a scorched earth campaign against minority villages, killing tens of thousands of civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands more into camps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sudanese protestors vowed Friday to chase out the country's new military rulers, as the army offered talks on forming a civilian government after it ousted president Omar al-Bashir. But the military council warned it would tolerate no breaches of security, after protesters defied a night-time curfew following Bashir's Thursday fall, keeping up their sit-outside the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-41031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n