Sudan's ruling military council and main opposition coalition have agreed on a constitutional declaration which will pave the way for a new period of transitional government, the African Union mediator for Sudan, Mohamed Hassan Lebatt, announced on Saturday. The agreement came after prolonged negotiations between Sudan's military council and the Alliance for Freedom and Change, which has been leading the protest movement across the country for the past months. Following the announcement of the agreement, the celebrations spread through the Sudanese capital of Khartoum and other cities in the country. Sudan has been in a state of political turmoil since the army ousted veteran leader Omar Al-Bashir in April, with dozens of demonstrators killed in separate protests. According to a draft of the declaration seen by Reuters, the intelligence service will report to the cabinet and the sovereign council, the body that will rule the country in the transitional period, while the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) will fall under the general command of the armed forces. Legal and technical teams still need to establish a timeline for the declaration to come into effect and for the transitional government to be appointed. Once the transitional government starts work, Sudan embarks on a three-year transition period expected to lead to elections. Despite killings and tensions in the last period, the military council and civilian Forces for Freedom and Change Coalition resumed talks last Thursday on forming a power-sharing government, justifying the step to stop violence. Over the weekend, military authorities in Sudan have arrested several suspects in the shooting deaths of protesters in the cities of El-Obeid last Monday and Omdurman last Thursday. Four Sudanese paramilitary soldiers were arrested Friday over charges of killing six protesters in El-Obeid. On Thursday, the military council arrested seven members of the RSF in connection with that incident. Four people have been shot dead at a demonstration in Omdurman, the twin city of Sudan's capital Khartoum. The incident occurred as thousands of demonstrators participated in a "million-man march" to protest the killing of four school children earlier in El-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan in central Sudan.
