El Tayyar editor: ‘Al Bashir ordered massacre before coup’

According to a senior Sudanese journalist, on the day before he was overthrown by a military coup, ousted President Omar Al Bashir ordered the military to disperse the sit-in in front of the General Command of the Sudan Armed Forces by force, authorising them “to kill 30-50 per cent of the people”.

Speaking to protesters in front of the General Command of the Sudan Armed Forces on Thursday evening (the sit-in has been sustained since April 6), Osman Mirghani, Editor-in-chief of El Tayyar newspaper, said that the leaders of the Interim Military Council have told him that a day before the decision to oust Al Bashir, the president said to them: “Of course you all know that we follow the Maliki doctrine which allows a leader to kill 30 per cent of his people, and some hardliners even say 50 per cent”.

He explained that Al Bashir concluded his speech by telling the security chiefs: “You have 48 hours to get rid of everyone in front of the General Command.”

Mirghani added that it was at that moment the leaders of the junta decided that Al Bashir needed to be ousted.

Coup

Nationwide protests sparked by rising bread prices and fuel and cash crises, began on mid-December 2018 and culminated in a public convergence under the stewardship of the the Declaration of Freedom and Change, a broad coalition of opposition parties including the Sudanese Professionals Association, on the the General Command of the Sudan Armed Forces in Khartoum on April 6.

On April 11, Al Bashir was ousted by a military coup, that, after initial jockeying for power within the military, resulted in the current Interim Military Council.

The protests and the sit-ins have continued throughout the country. The forces of freedom and change in Sudan, as well as several voices from the international community Including the USA and European Union, have expressed their insistence that the Interim Military Council established after the overthrow of the Al Bashir regime, urgently transfer power to an interim civilian government.

Video: Osman Mirgani addresses sit in 19 April 2019

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