Military Ousts Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir

Bashir, 75, had faced 16 weeks of demonstrations against his rule. Announcing the ouster, Defence Minister Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Auf said Sudan would enter a two-year period of military rule to be followed by presidential elections.

Speaking on state television, he said Bashir was being detained in a "safe place" and a military council would now run the country.

Ibn Auf, who Bashir appointed the first vice president in February as the protests intensified, will head the military council, state TV said late on Thursday. The Sudanese military's chief of staff Kamal Abdel Marouf al-Mahi will be deputy's head.

Ibn Auf announced a state of emergency, a nationwide ceasefire and the suspension of the constitution. Seated on a gold-upholstered armchair, he said Sudan's airspace would be closed for 24 hours and border crossings shut until further notice.

The main organizer of protests against Bashir, the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), rejected the minister's plans. It called on protesters to maintain a sit-in outside the defense ministry that began on Saturday.

Shortly afterward, tens of thousands of demonstrators packed the streets of central Khartoum, their mood turning from celebration over Bashir's expected departure to frustration at the announcement of the military-led transition.

National flags were waved over the vast crowds, which included families, women and people of all ages. "Fall, again!" many chanted, adapting an earlier anti-Bashir slogan of "Fall, that's all!". Some wrote anti-Ibn Auf slogans on their clothes.

Sudanese sources told Reuters that Bashir was at the presidential residence under "heavy guard".

State television said there would be a nighttime curfew from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.

In a clear challenge to the military council, several thousand protesters remained in front of the defense ministry compound, and in other parts of the capital, as the curfew went into effect.

They chanted "They removed a thief and brought a thief!" and "Revolution! Revolution!"

Some shops in Omdurman, across the River Nile from central Khartoum, remained open past 10 p.m., a Reuters witness said.

"To comply with the curfew is to recognize the clone rescue government," SPA said. "Stay put and guard your revolution."

SPA also said the sit-in will not end until power is handed to a civilian transitional government. Omar Saleh Sennar, a senior SPA member, said the group expected to negotiate with the military over a transfer of power.

The United States said it was suspending talks with Sudan on normalizing relations. The State Department ordered non-emergency U.S. government employees to leave the country and warned Americans against traveling to Sudan due to "crime, terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping and armed conflict."

The State Department, while declining to declare the takeover a coup, said Washington supported a peaceful and democratic Sudan and believed the Sudanese people should be allowed a peaceful transition sooner than two years from now.

"The Sudanese people should determine who leads them in their future," State Department spokesman Robert Palladino told a news briefing. "The Sudanese people have been clear that they have been demanding a civilian-led transition. They should be allowed to do so sooner than two years from now."

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt called for a "swift move to an inclusive, representative, civilian leadership", saying in a tweet that a "military council ruling for 2 years is not the answer". 

ICC WARRANT

Bashir has been indicted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague and is facing an arrest warrant over allegations of genocide in Sudan's Darfur region during an insurgency that began in 2003 and led to the death of an estimated 300,000 people. He denies the allegations.

He defied the court by visiting several ICC member states. Diplomatic disputes broke out when he went to South Africa in 2015 and Jordan in 2017 and both failed to arrest him.

Bashir's downfall was the second time this month that a leader in the region has been forced out after mass demonstrations. Algeria's ailing former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in power since 1999, stepped down on April 2 after six weeks of protests against him extending his rule.

Names circulating about Bashir's possible successors include the defense minister, an ex-military intelligence chief, also an Islamist, and former army chief of staff Emad al-Din Adawi.

Ibn Auf has long been among Sudan's senior leadership.

Adawi is said to be favored by regional neighbors at odds with Bashir over his Islamist leanings.

Osman Abubakar, a 27-year-old protester in Port Sudan, said some soldiers had joined in chants against the military council in the eastern city.

Ibn Auf announced the release of all political prisoners, and images circulated of freed detainees joining the protests.

In Port Sudan and Kassala, another eastern city, protesters attacked the offices of Sudan's intelligence and security service, witnesses said.

Amnesty International expressed alarm at the "raft of emergency measures" announced on Thursday.

REUTERS