23 February 2019•Update: 24 February 2019
By Mohammed Amin
KHARTOUM, Sudan
Sudanese president has appointed Minister of Defense Awad Ibn Oaf as first vice president of the country, a presidential decree said on Saturday.
According to a statement issued by the media office of the presidency, former Governor of Al-Gazeera state Mohamed Tahir Aila has also been appointed as new prime minister of the country.
On Friday, Bashir declared a one-year nationwide state of emergency and set up a caretaker government. He replaced all state governors with senior army officials.
Addressing the nation, al-Bashir called on the Sudanese parliament to delay constitutional amendments that would allow him to run for another term in the presidential election in 2020.
"I announced that the national dialogue will continue and called on the parliament to postpone the constitutional amendments," Bashir said.
Sudan has been rocked by popular protests for the last two months, with demonstrators decrying al-Bashir’s failure to remedy the country’s longstanding economic woes.
Sudanese officials say around 31 people have been killed since the protests began in December, although the opposition puts the number at closer to 50.
A nation of 40 million people, Sudan has struggled to recover from the loss of three quarters of its oil output -- its main source of foreign currency -- when South Sudan seceded in 2011.
