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"We will deal with it firmly in accordance with the law," Sudanese army threatened the protesters demanding civilian government.
Sudan’s ruling Transitional Military Council said Tuesday the army would not accept unrest in the country amidst continuous sit-in outside army headquarters in demand of a civil government.
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"We will not accept chaos. We will deal with it firmly in accordance with the law," Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the Transitional Military Council's vice president said Tuesday. "We do not want to escalate the situation. We are committed to negotiation. After today, there will be no chaotic scenes," he added.
On April 11, after ruling the country since 1989, Omar al-Bashir was ousted and arrested by the army. His downfall came after four months of nation-wide protests which witnessed deaths and imprisonment of demonstrators.
After the coup, former Defense Minister Lieutenant-General Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf announced the establishment of a two-year transitional military council of which he was sworn in as a head. Protesters did not accept this as Ibn Auf is seen as a Bashir loyalist.
A curfew and three-month emergency period were announced that thousands of protesters defied. Ibn Auf stepped down within hours of taking power and Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan replaced him.
Since then thousands of protesters are camping outside the army headquarters in the capital city Khartoum demanding a quick transition to a civil government.
"The military council is a copy cat of the toppled regime. The army is trying to disperse the sit-in by removing the barricades," said the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), one of the leading groups of the movement. "We are calling on our people to come immediately to the sit-in area. We are calling on the revolutionaries to protect the barricades and rebuild them."
The African Union recently granted the Sudanese military council a three-month deadline to hand over power to a civilian administration; however, this was rejected by the opposition alliance.
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