The fall of Sudan’s strongman Omar Al-Bashir yesterday elicited reactions from the global community with Mali’s Prime Minister Moussa Mara saying his “departure” shares the same principle with that of Algeria’s 82-year-old Abdelaziz Bouteflika who resigned as president following weeks of protest by citizens.
Mara, in a statement issued in response to an enquiry by The Guardian, said the increasingly young and connected (and therefore demanding) African population would be less and less tolerant of leaders as “special situations” become “detonators of these movements.”
“When a president, after 30 years in power, is still struggling to allow a regular supply of basic necessities in his country and takes unbearable measures for the purse of the weakest, he will face a popular movement,” Mara told The Guardian through one of his aides.
“It will be the same when he tries to stay in power despite disappointing results.” According to him, the Sudan experience is promising for democratic renewal and socio-economic progress of the continent.
Early morning reports had announced al-Bashir’s resignation and hand over of power to the military council. But the military council in a subsequent statement by General Awad Ibn Auf claimed it seized power from 75-year-old Bashir, who had been taken to a “safe place” after “toppling the regime.” He announced the formation of a two-year military-led transitional government.
Source: Guardian Newspaper
