A number of arrests have been made since the attack on Monday. Some of them foreigners.

Abdalla Hamdok was unscathed when explosives and gunfire were launched on his convoy taking him to work in Khartoum.

It underlines the fragility of Sudan’s transition to civilian rule after last year’s fall of Omar Al Bashir.

The arrival in Sudan of FBI agents supporting  investigations into the  attack shows how relations between Washington Khartoum have warmed since Al Bashir’s departure.

Sudan under him was regarded as an international pariah for which it drew economic and military sanctions. 

Sudan was on Washington’s list of terrorist supporting states for which it attracted sanctions.

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But the great deal of  political  toil lies ahead for the country’s new rulers.

It was vital to get something inked in Sudan after a week of violence that saw schoolchildren cut down by paramilitaries.

The declaration signed in Khartoum presses all the buttons.

But the real deal, naming the sovereign council to replace the military junta is still twelve days off.

Flag-waving Sudanese singing revolutionary songs filled the streets of Khartoum today celebrating the declaration,

The big test will be how the military reacts if anything causes that celebration to once again turn to protest  

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It is not immediately clear how this will affect talks between the military junta and civilian groups on implementing a power-sharing deal.

Hundreds of thousands of people turned out for what was billed a million-person march against the killing  of six people – four of them school pupils – demonstrating in the Red Sea city of El Obeid on Monday.

Then, as yesterday, the trigger-happy Rapid Support Forces are being blamed for using live ammunition against unarmed demonstrators.

Once again civilian groups are having to balance their desire to enter a power-sharing deal with their determination to hold the military junta accountable for the excesses by the security forces.

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African editors have got the military junta and civilian protestors back around the negotiating table in Sudan.

The resumption of talks is a positive developments since the massacre of demonstrators a month ago and further killing by soldiers bringing the death toll to at least 1

The mediators from the African Union backed  by Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has proposed a 15-member transitional authority for Sudan.

It would comprise seven military representatives and seven civilians with a 15th member agreed by consensus.

Neither side has indicated acceptance.

The generals have released political prisoners taken since they deposed Omar Al Bashir in April.

The talks in Khartoum are taking place after expiry of a 60 deadline imposed by the AU for the installation of a civilian-led authority.

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Tibor Nagy will urge the military junta to cease attacks on civilians who are on a civil disobedience campaign aimed at removing them.

The mission of US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Tibor Nagy is to help create an enabling environment to get Sudan’s Transitional Military Council back to the negotiation table with civilians bent on running the country following the fall of President Omar Al Bashir.

Trust has broken down after the delaying of 108 protestors last week and a further four this week when the civil disobedience campaign took effect.

Nagy will go on to Addis Ababa where Ethiopia premier Abiy Ahmed has been accepted as a mediator  in the Sudanese imbroglio. 

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The human rights watchdog calls what happened in the Sudanese capital barbaric and a bloodbath.

The African Union punitive measure against the military junta in Khartoum is unprecedented.

It has gone further than the United Nations Security Council where China and Russia blocked condemnation of the attacks on Sudanese civilian  demonstrators

The continental body’s Peace and Security Council decided at an emergency meeting yesterday that Sudan will remain suspended until a civilian-led administration is restored.

The Transitional Military Council is split on how to respond raising fears of a civil war in Sudan.

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The civilian groups have rejected fresh calls from the Transitional Military Council for talks, saying the army cannot be trusted.

The Sudanese Professionals Association, which has been leading demonstrations for the military to hand power to civilian administration, demands that an international committee be set up to investigate what it is calling a massacre.

The generals say they will look into what the Rapid Support Force – formerly known as the Janjaweed – did to disperse demonstrators on Monday and punish anyone who’s crossed the line.

There’s growing international condemnation of the killing of unarmed protestors.

Saudi Arabia, that supported the military after the April coup that ousted President Omar Al Bashir, now says it is watching developments with concern.

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The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors says at least 13 people have been killed.

The Transitional Military Council promised after ousting President Omar Al Bashir in coup two months ago that they would not attack protestors who had weakened his position.

Today they reneged on that undertaking using live round to cut down demonstrators and batons to beat those who would not move from the camp they set up in Al Bashir’s last days.

The troops from the rapid support force blocked access to those seeking to support the demonstrators.

Their deadly action has put paid to negotiations ordered by the African Union to install a civilian-led administration in Sudan.

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The country’s military rulers accuse them of threatening the coherence of the state and its national security.

Military spokesman General Bahar Ahmed Bahar gave it to protestors with both barrels when he appeared on state television.

The army chiefs who ousted President Omar Al Bashir in a coup initially promised not to use force against the protestors who had weakened his position.

Now they’re threatening to deal with what they call unruly elements.

General Bahar says the sit-in calling for civilian rule is  unsafe and posing a threat to the revolution and revolutionaries.

The Transitional Military Council has closed down the Khartoum office of the news channel Al Jazeera without giving any reasons for the action. 

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They told Abdel Fattah Burhan that they would stay on the streets until there is a civilian government.

ends intro

The meeting in Khartoum is a result the military council’s call for dialogue with the Sudan Professionals Association and others who have been protesting against ousted President Omar Al Bashir since last December.

The council says it arrested Al Bashir and some members of his Cabinet last Thursday in order to maintain public order.

It has declared two years of martial law, leading to elections but it can truncate this if there is smooth progress towards establishing a civilian government,

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