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Africa Horn
Sudan opposition rejects army’s offer of talks, death toll hits 101
2019-06-06
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Sudan’s military rulers offered to resume talks with opposition groups on Wednesday, two days after security forces mounted a deadly raid on a protest camp, but the opposition rejected the invitation.

Medics linked to the opposition said the corpse count from Monday’s operation and subsequent unrest had risen to 101 and that it was expected to increase further. No official casualty figures have been released.

The raid, which followed weeks of wrangling between the ruling military council and opposition groups over who should lead Sudan’s transition to democracy, marked the worst outbreak of violence since the army ousted President Omar al-Bashir
Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it.
in April after months of protests against his rule.

The Transitional Military Council cancelled all agreements it had reached with the opposition immediately after the raid but on Wednesday it rowed back amid mounting international criticism of the violence.

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"We in the military council extend our hand for negotiations without shackles except the interests of the homeland," its head, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, said on state TV.

But a Sudanese alliance of protesters and opposition groups rejected the offer, saying the military could not be trusted.

"Today the council invited us to dialogue and at the same time it is imposing fear on citizens in the streets," Madani Abbas Madani, a leader of the Declaration of Freedom and Change Forces (DFCF), told Rooters.

Madani said Burhan’s invitation had come before the arrest of one of the opposition alliance members, Yasir Arman, deputy head of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) rebel group.

Posted by:Fred

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