KHARTOUM: The central Khartoum military region accused “unruly elements” of attacking a vehicle used by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and seizing it near the protest site.
“The protest site has become unsafe and represents a danger to the revolution and the revolutionaries and threatens the coherence of the state and its national security,” Gen. Bahar Ahmed Al-Bahar, head of the central region in Khartoum said in a statement he read on television.
Tens of thousands of protesters had converged on an encampment heeding a call by protest leaders to step up pressure on the Transitional Military Council (TMC) to hand over power to civilians, following a two-day strike observed earlier this week.
Sudanese security forces on Thursday delivered an order by the TMC to close down the offices of Qatar-based Al Jazeera Television without giving a reason, the head of the office said. TMC officials could not immediately be reached for a comment on the report.
Stability in strategically located Sudan is crucial for the security of a volatile region struggling against insurgencies, including the Horn of Africa through Egypt and Libya. Various powers, including wealthy Gulf Arab states, are trying to influence its path.
A Reuters witness said that the protesters who had converged on the protest site chanted slogans against the RSF, a paramilitary force led by the deputy head of the TMC, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
Some stood in front of military trucks used by the force which controls the capital.
Dagalo, who goes by the name Hemedti, has accused protesters of receiving support from abroad and said they were not entitled to claim they speak for all Sudanese.
Talks between the Declaration of Freedom and Change Forces (DFCF), a coalition of demonstrators and opposition groups, and the TMC have stalled amid differences over whether the military would control a proposed sovereign body that would lead Sudan during a three-year transitional period.
The DFCF had previously said that the military council has demanded a two-thirds majority, of eight to three, on the sovereign council that will lead the country of 40 million.
The coalition had called for a two-day strike of public and private enterprises from Tuesday, and threatened to call for general civil disobedience if the military does not heed their demands.
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Sudan’s military rulers say protest site threatens stability
Sudan’s military rulers say protest site threatens stability
- Stability in strategically located Sudan is crucial for the security of a volatile region struggling against insurgencies
Syrian leader to meet Putin, Russia seeks deal on military bases
MOSCOW: Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa will meet Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, as the Kremlin seeks to secure the future of its military bases in the country.
Putin and Sharaa struck a conciliatory tone at their previous meeting in October, their first since Sharaa’s rebel forces toppled Moscow-ally Bashar Assad in 2024.
But Russia’s continued sheltering of Assad and his wife since their ouster remains a thorny issue. Sharaa has repeatedly pushed Russia for their extradition.
Sharaa, meanwhile, has embraced US President Donald Trump, who on Tuesday praised the Syrian leader as “highly respected” and said things were “working out very well.”
Putin, whose influence in the Middle East has waned since Assad’s ouster, is seeking to maintain Russia’s military footprint in the region.
Russia withdrew its forces from the Qamishli airport in Kurdish-held northeast Syria earlier this week, leaving it with only the Hmeimim air base and Tartus naval base on Syria’s Mediterranean coast — its only military outposts outside the former Soviet Union.
“A discussion is planned on the status of bilateral relations and prospects for developing them in various fields, as well as the current situation in the Middle East,” the Kremlin said of the upcoming meeting in a statement on Tuesday.
Russia was a key ally of Assad during the bloody 14-year Syrian civil war, launching air strikes on rebel-held areas of Syria controlled by Sharaa’s Islamist forces.
The toppling of Assad dealt a major blow to Russia’s influence in the region and laid bare the limits of Moscow’s military reach amid the Ukraine war.
The United States, which cheered Assad’s demise, has fostered ever-warmer ties with Sharaa — even as Damascus launched a recent offensive against Kurdish forces long backed by the West.
Despite Trump’s public praise, both the United States and Europe have expressed concern that the offensive in Syria’s northeast could precipitate the return of Islamic State forces held in Kurdish-held jails.
Putin and Sharaa struck a conciliatory tone at their previous meeting in October, their first since Sharaa’s rebel forces toppled Moscow-ally Bashar Assad in 2024.
But Russia’s continued sheltering of Assad and his wife since their ouster remains a thorny issue. Sharaa has repeatedly pushed Russia for their extradition.
Sharaa, meanwhile, has embraced US President Donald Trump, who on Tuesday praised the Syrian leader as “highly respected” and said things were “working out very well.”
Putin, whose influence in the Middle East has waned since Assad’s ouster, is seeking to maintain Russia’s military footprint in the region.
Russia withdrew its forces from the Qamishli airport in Kurdish-held northeast Syria earlier this week, leaving it with only the Hmeimim air base and Tartus naval base on Syria’s Mediterranean coast — its only military outposts outside the former Soviet Union.
“A discussion is planned on the status of bilateral relations and prospects for developing them in various fields, as well as the current situation in the Middle East,” the Kremlin said of the upcoming meeting in a statement on Tuesday.
Russia was a key ally of Assad during the bloody 14-year Syrian civil war, launching air strikes on rebel-held areas of Syria controlled by Sharaa’s Islamist forces.
The toppling of Assad dealt a major blow to Russia’s influence in the region and laid bare the limits of Moscow’s military reach amid the Ukraine war.
The United States, which cheered Assad’s demise, has fostered ever-warmer ties with Sharaa — even as Damascus launched a recent offensive against Kurdish forces long backed by the West.
Despite Trump’s public praise, both the United States and Europe have expressed concern that the offensive in Syria’s northeast could precipitate the return of Islamic State forces held in Kurdish-held jails.
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