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Sudan Protesters Announce General Strike - Reports

Sudanese protest leaders have called for a two-day general strike starting from Tuesday amid a stalemate in talks with the military on installing civilian rule, AFP reported on Friday.
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"There is no longer any alternative to using the weapon of a general strike", the Alliance for Freedom and Change umbrella group said in a statement Friday, cited by AFP.

Sudan experienced a military coup on 11 April following four months of anti-government protests. President Omar Bashir, who had been in power for 30 years, was overthrown and then imprisoned.

Talks on the makeup of the future sovereign council for governing the country between Sudan's Transitional Military Council (TMC) and the opposition movement "Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change" were not suspended but stopped, Satia Alhaj a leader of the movement told Sputnik on Friday.

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Alhaj also said that political forces are planning to establish a parliamentary republic with expanded powers of the government and parliament for a transitional period.

The TMC came to power and pledged to hold a new election. However, the protests have continued, with the demonstrators demanding that the military hand power to a new civilian government.

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As a result of the talks on Wednesday, the TMC and the opposition reached an agreement on a three-year transitional period in the country.

The negotiations were to continue on Thursday, but the TMC announced that it had decided to take a three-day break in the talks and remove all barricades erected by protesters in Khartoum, reportedly criticizing the demonstrators for blocking off roads and bridges in the capital.

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