The two-day general strike called by the Alliance for Freedom and Change protest movement has entered the second day on Wednesday. The strike, which began on Tuesday, left hundreds of airline passengers stranded at Khartoum airport and bus stations after the protest group requested Sudanese pilots and bus terminal staff to participate.
The strike has been called to step up the pressure on the military council which took power after ousting longtime president Omar al-Bashir after months of protests against his autocratic rule. Bashir, who had ruled Sudan for nearly three decades, was accused of human rights abuses and corruption.
Thousands of employees of government offices, banks, private sector firms and the docks of Port Sudan observed the strike on Tuesday to demand civilian rule, reported Business Standard.
Although the capital’s airport began to return to normal after the staff ceased work on Tuesday, the flights of Sudanese airlines Badr, Tarco, and Nova remained suspended even on Wednesday.
The ruling military council and the alliance of the protest and opposition group had agreed on many aspects of the political transition, including its duration and the bodies that will oversee it, last week. But negotiations between the two sides suspended over the protesters demands that a planned new sovereign council to replace the current generals have a civilian head and a civilian majority. The new sovereign council will run the country for the next three years before elections.
On Monday, Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the deputy head of the Transitional Military Council, who goes by the nickname Hemeti, said that the council was ready to hand over power swiftly. He went on to accuse the opposition of not being serious about sharing power and wanted to confine the military to a ceremonial role.
Meanwhile, the opposition alliance has threatened to go for further civil disobedience if the military does not hand power to civilians after the strike ends Wednesday.
