n Crowds of jubilant Sudanese took to the streets of Khartoum on Friday, chanting “civilian rule” after protest leaders struck a deal with the ruling generals on a new governing body. Chants of “the martyrs’ blood has not been shed in vain” reverberated around the same streets where more than six months of protests culminated in the landmark roadmap for a new political future after the toppling of veteran president Omar al-Bashir in a palace coup in April.
The deal, reached in early hours of Friday after two days of hard-won talks brokered by Ethiopian and African Union mediators, provides for the interim governing body to have a rotating presidency, as a compromise between positions of generals and protesters.