Anti-Regime Protests Resume İn Several Parts Of Sudan

Despite promise to unveil new caretaker government, demonstrators still demand resignation of president.

Demonstrations resumed in several Sudanese cities on Thursday amid calls for President Omar al-Bashir to step down.

Protests erupted in several parts of Khartoum after the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) urged members of the public to join the demonstrations.

In a statement, the SPA said "hundreds" of university students had taken part in the Khartoum protests.

Thousands of high-school students, meanwhile, reportedly participated in protests held in Khartoum, Atbara, Al-Abyad and West Darfur.

Last month, 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 also urged lawmakers to postpone ratification of proposed constitutional changes, which -- if approved -- would have allowed him to run for another term in office in polls slated for 2020.

Shortly afterward, al-Bashir appointed Defense Minister Awad ibn Oaf as the country's first vice-president.

Since mid-December, 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. -