13 March 2019•Update: 13 March 2019
KHARTOUM
Newly-appointed Sudanese Prime Minister Mohamed Tahir Ayala officially unveiled a new cabinet lineup on Wednesday.
At a press conference in Khartoum, he announced the names of several cabinet members, including Interior Minister Bushara Jumaa Aror; Foreign Minister Dardairi Mohamed Ahmed; Information Minister Hassan Ismail; Trade Minister Hamid Mumtaz; and Presidential Affairs Minister Fadl Abdullah Fadl.
Last month, amid ongoing anti-regime demonstrations, President Omar al-Bashir declared a one-year nationwide state of emergency.
He also announced plans to unveil a new caretaker government and replaced several regional governors with senior army officials.
Al-Bashir had also called on parliament to postpone ratification of constitutional changes, which -- if approved -- would have allowed him to run for another term in office in 2020 elections.
Shortly afterward, al-Bashir appointed Defense Minister Awad ibn Oaf as the country’s first-ever vice president.
For the last two months, Sudan has been rocked by popular protests, with demonstrators decrying al-Bashir’s seeming failure to remedy the country’s chronic economic woes.
A nation of 40 million, Sudan has struggled to recover from the loss of some three quarters of its oil output -- its main source of foreign currency -- since the 2011 secession of South Sudan.
