Sudan protest leaders call for strike from Tuesday

Sudan’s protest leaders have called for a two-day general strike starting Tuesday amid deadlock in talks with the military on installing civilian rule.

“There is no longer any alternative to using the weapon of a general strike,” the Alliance for Freedom and Change umbrella group said in a statement Friday.

It said the strike, affecting “public and private institutions and companies”, would be accompanied by civil disobedience and was “an act of peaceful resistance with which we have been forced to proceed”.

The group, which led a nationwide protest movement against long-time leader Omar al-Bashir that led to his ouster on April 11, is at odds with the ruling military council over the form of a new governing body.

Talks between the two sides have been suspended since Monday after a disagreement over who should lead the new authority a civilian or an officer.

The generals who seized power after Bashir was toppled have resisted calls from the demonstrators and the international community to step down.

The protest alliance said Thursday it would launch a campaign to urge demonstrators who have been rallying for weeks outside the army complex in Khartoum, and in other cities, to come up with a solution to overcome the impasse.