KHARTOUM: Sudan’s pro­­test leaders said on Mon­day they have reached a breakthrough agreement with the country’s military rulers on transitional authorities to run the country.

The news came shortly after the prosecutor general’s office said ousted president Omar al-Bashir had been charged over the killings of protesters during anti-regime demonstrations that led to the end of his rule.

“At today’s meeting we agreed on the structure of the authorities and their powers,” Taha Osman, a spokesman for the protest movement, said.

“The authorities are as follows — the sovereign council, the cabinet and the legislative body,” he said.

Osman said another meeting would be held on Tuesday “to discuss the period of transition and the composition of the authorities”.

The crucial talks between Sudan’s army rulers and protest leaders over handing power to a civilian administration follow a deadlock in negotiations.

The apparent breakthro­ugh came as Sudan’s acting prosecutor general Al-Wale­­ed Sayyed Ahmed said Ba­­shir “and others have been charged for inciting and participating in the killing of demonstrators”.

The charges form part of an investigation into the death of a medic killed during a protest in the capital’s eastern district of Burri, his office said in a statement.

Ninety protesters were killed in protest-related violence after demonstrations erupted in December over a government decision to triple the price of bread, a doctors’ committee linked to the protest movement said last month.

The official death toll is 65.

Mass protests which drove longtime leader Bashir from office on April 11 are still being held outside the army headquarters in central Khartoum, vowing to force the ruling council to cede power.

Protest leaders Omar al-Digeir and Satea al-Haj were among those who attended the talks on Monday on be­­half of the Alliance for Free­dom and Change, a spokeswoman for the umbrella group, Mashar Darraj, said.

The meeting was held behind closed doors at a convention centre in central Khartoum.

Prior to the meeting, dozens of protesters blocked Nile Street, a major avenue in the city, for the second consecutive day, a correspondent reported.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2019