Sudan’s military and a faction of the pro-democracy coalition announced on Friday that they have reached a framework agreement to end the country’s political crisis.
In separate statements, the Sovereign Council and the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC), said the preliminary deal on restoring a civilian-led democratic transition will be signed on Monday in Khartoum.
The military seized power in Sudan in a coup on 25 October 2021 that toppled a joint military-civilian administration and derailed a delicate democratic transition that began after the 2019 removal of Omar Al Bashir. The FFC was the military’s partner in that transitional government.
The coup sparked a wave of street protests demanding an end to military rule. About 120 protesters were reported killed and more than 6,000 injured at the hands of security forces.
Friday’s announcement followed months of closed-door talks between the army generals and representatives of the FFC.
Both the Sovereign Council and the FFC said the decision to sign the deal followed a meeting earlier on Friday between the group’s representatives and military ruler Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, who led last year’s coup, and his second in command on the military-led council Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The meeting, they added, was attended by politicians from several parties as well as representatives of the UN, US, European Union, Britain and Saudi Arabia.
The two statements suggested that the deal was more of a draft roadmap that is open for discussion with other political forces and will later be fine-tuned and fleshed out.
The statement from the Sovereign Council said it would take only weeks to reach a final accord and constitutional arrangements to serve as a prelude to the creation of a civilian administration that leads the transition until free elections are held.
Generals Al Burhan and Dagalo have repeatedly pledged to step down, hand over power to civilians and leave politics altogether.