EU Envoy Offers Sudan Help With Transition To Civilian Rule

The EU ambassador to Sudan, Jean-Michel Dumond, has promised the country's ruling military council the bloc's assistance in transition to civilian rule, the Sudanese military said in a press release

KHARTOUM (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th April, 2019) The EU ambassador to Sudan, Jean-Michel Dumond, has promised the country's ruling military council the bloc's assistance in transition to civilian rule, the Sudanese military said in a press release.

Dumond made the offer at a meeting in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum on Monday with the council's deputy head, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

"The EU ambassador said that the union was committed to providing all necessary assistance to guarantee a successful transition in Sudan," the council said in the release.

It added that Dumond applauded the council's decision to lift night curfew and free political prisoners detained by the government of ousted President Omar Bashir.

Bashir was toppled last week after nearly 30 years in power. The transitional military council, led by Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan, promised to hold a new election in two years' time.

This was met by new protests in Khartoum, with demonstrators calling for an immediate handover to a civilian caretaker government.

The EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said in a statement last week that a military council did not "provide the answers." She said only a swift handover to a civilian transitional government could meet the aspirations of the Sudanese people.