CAIRO (AP) — Sudan’s military on Sunday pledged to stand by President Omar Bashir, according to a tweet by the country’s state news agency, a timely show of support as the embattled leader faces ongoing street protests decrying worsening economic conditions and demanding that he step down.
“The armed forces assert that it stands behind its leadership and its keen interest in safeguarding the people’s achievements and the nation’s security, safety along with its blood, honor and assets,” said the tweet, quoting a military statement.
Bashir hails from the military establishment, which has dominated the country in the six decades since independence from Anglo-Egyptian rule in 1956. The Sudanese president was an army Brigadier-General when he joined forces with Islamists to seize power in a 1989 military coup that toppled a freely elected but ineffective government.
The military statement came as opposition to Bashir mounted and violent street protests continued in a string of cities across the country.
On Sunday, an umbrella coalition of professional unions said the nation’s doctors will go on an indefinite strike that is expected to be the first of a series of work stoppages amid protests calling on Bashir to step down.
In a statement, the coalition said the doctors will continue to deal with emergencies during the strike, which begins Monday and aims to “paralyze” the government and deny it much-needed revenues. The coalition also called on citizens to continue their street protests, which entered their fifth day Sunday, according to activists, with demonstrations in several cities.
There have also been calls by a number of independent trade and professional unions for a general strike on Wednesday.
The protests are chiefly over the rising prices and shortages of food and fuel. A steep rise decreed last week in the price of bread, a main staple for most Sudanese, proved to be the final straw. The protests prompted authorities to suspend classes in schools and universities in a string of cities, including the capital Khartoum, and to impose a nighttime curfew in some of them.
Authorities on Saturday detained more than a dozen opposition leaders, including one who is in his 80s.
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