Huge crowds demanding civilian rule sit-in outside Sudan’s defense ministry
A huge crowd massed outside Sudan’s Defence Ministry on Thursday to demand civilian rule, challenging the Transitional Military Council that removed President Omar al-Bashir earlier this month to cede power.
They were responding to a call by the Sudanese Professionals’ Association (SPA), the main organiser of protests including a sit-in outside the Defence Ministry compound that began on April 6, for a million people to join the march.
A Reuters reporter estimated the crowd to number hundreds of thousands.
Earlier, about 100 Sudanese judges demanding civilian rule had walked from the Supreme Court in Khartoum towards the sit-in, joining anti-government protests for the first time, a witness said.
Wearing their black robes, some of the judges carried signs reading “judges for change” as they marched through central Khartoum to the Defence Ministry, the witness said.
Sudan’s Transitional Military Council (TMC) and the opposition have been at loggerheads over how long it will take to move to civilian rule after the military ousted Bashir on April 11 following months of protests against his 30-year rule.
