Omar al-Bashir, President of Sudan, is set to step down after 30 years in power.
According to Arab newspaper Al Arabiya, the Khartoum airport has been closed down and a counter-coup attempt in Sudan has failed.
Although, a gathering of Sudanese professionals has confirmed it will accept only the handover of power to a civilian transitional government, the Sudanese Army has announced the formation of an interim council headed by Awad Ibn Auft, the first Vice-President.
The paper quoted sources as saying men of the Sudanese Army were reported to have stormed the home of Awad al-Jazz, assistant to President al-Bashir, while Sudanese Prime Minister Mohamed Tahir Ayala had been arrested, with al-Bashir prevented from departing Sudan on Wednesday.
Sudanese military vehicles were deployed on key roads, bridges in Khartoum and people were chanting “it has fallen, we won”, as soldiers raided the headquarters of the Islamic movement led by Bashir in Khartoum.
Al-Bashir has been President of Sudan since 1989 when, as a brigadier in the Sudanese Army, he led a group of officers in a military coup that ousted the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi.
Since then, he has been elected three times as President in elections marred by electoral fraud.
In 2009, al-Bashir became the first sitting President to be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for allegedly directing a campaign of mass killing, rape, and pillage against civilians in Darfur.
