Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has stepped down and consultations are under way to set up a transitional council, according to Reuters.
Sudan has been rocked by months of anti-government protests.
Bashir would be the second leader in the region to quit amid nationwide protests this month, following Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s resignation.
Sudan’s state news media said Thursday that the military would make an important announcement, a development that comes as protests against the rule of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the country’s authoritarian leader, have engulfed the nation.
“The armed forces will present an important statement shortly. Be ready for it,” a television anchor said.
Witnesses told the Reuters news agency that thousands of people had descended on the country’s Defense Ministry chanting, “It has fallen, we have won.”
Bashir, who has long been regarded as a pariah in the West and is wanted on genocide charges in connection with atrocities in Darfur, has ruled Sudan longer than any leader since the country gained independence in 1956.
