Sudan’s infamous NISS chief resigns

The director-general of the Sudan’s infamous National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), Salah Abdallah (aka Gosh) has resigned in what looks like a new concession to growing pressure from Sudan’s public and opposition forces to make a complete break with the Al Bashir regime.

In an announcement from Khartoum this morning, the interim president and leader of the military transitional council, Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan – himself only sworn-in on Friday night – said that he has accepted the resignation of the security chief.

The Sudanese Doctors Central Committee announced the increase in the number of dead since the start of the sit-in on April 6 to 35.

It said in a statement on Thursday, it said that security forces killed 13 people in Khartoum, Wad Madani, Atbara and Zalingei. Live bullets seriously wounded 39 people in Khartoum, two in Wad Madani, four in Kassala and three in Zalingei. The victims were all hit in the head, chest and/or the abdomen.

Curfew lifted

El Burhan also announced that the curfew (largely ignored and defied by the public) imposed when the military transitional council seized power after deposing and arresting President Omar Al Bashir on Thursday, has been lifted. He also said that all detainees arrested under the legal provisions of the State of Emergency, declared by the now deposed President Omar Al Bashir in February this year, will be released. The new three-month State of Emergency declared by the military transitional council on Thursday remains in force.

Lt Gen El Burhan also relieved the governors of all Sudan's states and pledged to enforce respect for human rights.

Adopting a conciliatory tone, he said the army will maintain "peace, order and security" across Sudan, and he called on the opposition to "help us restore normal life", promised to try those involved in the killin of demonstrators, and vowed a war on corruption.

Bashir to stand trial in Sudan

Al Bashir, who is currently under arrest ‘in a safe place’, has also been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, however the head of the political committee in charge of the military transitional council, Gen Omar Zeinelabdin, said at a press conference on Friday, that Al Bashir will not be handed to the ICC in The Hague, but will be tried in a Sudanese court.

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