Khartoum - Sudan's ruling military council
said on Tuesday it was canceling all agreements with the main
opposition coalition and called for elections within nine
months, following the worst violence since President Omar
al-Bashir was ousted in April.
The decision by the Transitional Military Council (TMC) is
likely to fuel anger among protest leaders who have demanded
preparations for elections during a longer transitional period
led by a civilian administration.
The TMC had been under both domestic and international
pressure to hand over power to civilians.
At least 35 people were killed when security forces stormed
a protest camp outside the Defense Ministry in central Khartoum
on Monday amid heavy gunfire, according to a group of doctors
linked to the opposition. The group had earlier said that at
least 116 people were wounded.
The main protest organizers, the Sudanese Professionals
Association (SPA), accused the TMC of perpetrating "a massacre"
as it broke up the camp, a charge denied by the council.
TMC spokesman Lieutenant General Shams El Din Kabbashi said
security forces were pursuing "unruly elements" who had fled to
the protest site and caused chaos.
The camp had become the focal point of pressure on the
country's military rulers to hand over power to civilians.
Sudan has been rocked by unrest since December, when anger
over rising bread prices and cash shortages broke into sustained
protests that culminated in the armed forces moving to oust
Bashir.
But talks between a coalition of protesters and opposition
parties have ground to a halt amid deep differences over who
will lead a transition to democracy that both sides had agreed
will last for three years.
In a televised address in the early hours of Tuesday
morning, TMC leader Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan
said that the opposition coalition was equally responsible for
the delay in coming to a final agreement.
The TMC had decided to cancel all agreements with the
protest groups and call for elections within nine months, which
he said will be organized under regional and international
supervision.
"Gaining legitimacy and a mandate does not come but through
the ballot box," Burhan said.
He also announced that a government would immediately be
formed to run the country until elections are held.
The protest organizers have not officially responded to
Burhan's decision. They had earlier condemned the violence and
vowed to escalate protests to force the military rulers to hand
over power to civilians.
Burhan said he regretted the violence that accompanied what
he described as "an operation to clean the Nile Street" and said
that the violence will be investigated.
The operation drew condemnation from Europe, the United
States and the African Union.
Sudan has been on a U.S. list of states that sponsor
terrorism since 1993 that denies the country access to financial
markets and strangles its economy.
Washington lifted a 20-year trade embargo against Sudan in
2017 and was in discussions to remove it from the sponsor of
terrorism list when the military stepped in on April 11 to
depose Bashir, who ruled Sudan for 30 years.