Sudan generals agree civilians will appoint top leaders

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KHARTOUM (AFP) – Sudan’s generals have agreed to leave the choice of future heads of state and prime ministers to civilian political factions, the deputy head of the military government said on Friday.

The announcement was made by paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo following a Thursday meeting with army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan who led a military coup last year.

But he gave no indication of when power might be returned to civilians amid the persistent failure of talks with the main civilian factions since the coup.

“We renewed our previous commitment for the military institution to exit power and leave the governance to civilian (factions),” said Daglo, also commonly known as Hemeti, on Twitter.

He said the generals “agreed unequivocally that civilian (factions) should choose the civilian head of the Sovereignty Council and prime minister”.

Sudan has been rocked by turmoil since Burhan led a military coup in October last year that ousted the mainstream civilian bloc from power.

Near-weekly anti-coup protests, a spiralling economic crisis and a rise in ethnic clashes in Sudan’s remote regions have since fed into the deepening unrest.

Sudanese anti-coup protesters take to the streets of the capital’s northern district of Khartoum-Bahri. PHOTO: AFP