Sudan Says Will Remain in Arab Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen

Sudan’s transitional military council announced on Monday that the country will remain in the Saudi-led Arab coalition to restore legitimacy in Yemen.

“We will continue to remain true to our commitment towards the coalition,” declared deputy head of the council, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

“Our forces will remain in the coalition until it achieves its goals,” he vowed, according to the Sudanese news agency (SUNA).

The military council came to power last week after ousting longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir.

It pledged to form a civilian government after talks with the opposition.

On Monday, representatives of the Sudanese Professionals’ Association (SPA) piled pressure on the military commanders, issuing a long list of demands for deeper and faster change to end repression and a ruinous economic crisis.

If their demands were not met, the group would press on with protests and would not join a future transitional government, Ahmed al-Rabie, an SPA member, told Reuters.

The SPA held its first news conference since Bashir was overthrown following months of street demonstrations.

A new interim civilian body should be given full executive powers, with the armed forces having representation, and military council should be dissolved, the SPA said.

“If our demand for the formation of a civilian transitional council with military representation is not met, we will not be part of the executive authority, the cabinet, and we will continue the mass escalation and the sit-ins to fulfill our demands,” Rabie told Reuters.

In a communique late on Monday, the African Union’s Peace and Security Council called for Sudan’s military to transfer power to a “transitional civilian-led political authority” within 15 days or face suspension from the AU.

Lieutenant General Jalal al-Deen al-Sheikh, a member of the military council, met Ethiopia’s prime minister in Addis Ababa, where the AU is based, and said, “We are already in the process of choosing a prime minister” for a civilian government, according to the Sudanese state news agency SUNA.

“So we are initiating this even before having this session with the African Union. This is our conviction and this is also the way forward to peace, but also, we respect it and we are committed to the decision of the Peace and Security Council.”

The SPA issued its demands hours after protesters blocked an attempt to break up a sit-in outside the Defense Ministry that has continued despite Bashir’s exit, a Reuters witness said.

Troops had gathered on three sides of the sit-in and tractors were preparing to remove stone and metal barriers, but protesters joined hands and formed rings around the sit-in area to prevent them.

Some of the most prominent SPA leaders, most of whom are in their 20s and 30s and were detained until after Bashir’s ouster, spoke at the news conference.

SPA representatives also renewed calls for the head of the judiciary and his deputies and public prosecutor to be removed. They demanded the dissolution of Bashir’s National Congress Party and said they received affirmation from the military council that the party will not participate in a transitional government.