Protesters in Sudan have agreed to lift a blockade on roads and oil pipelines leading to and from Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast for one month to allow military leaders behind last week's coup to form a new government.
Demonstrators affiliated with the Beja Congress political group began the blockade in September to protest against elements of a peace agreement that the government reached with rebel groups last year. They later agreed to allow flows to resume along a pipeline that carries crude from landlocked neighbour South Sudan to the Port Sudan terminal for export. But they continued to block a second pipeline used to transport imported oil products from the terminal to other parts of the country, forcing Sudan to use Egyptian ports to bring in diesel, medical supplies and food.
The situation took a dramatic turn last week when Sudan's top general, Abdel-Fattah Burhan, declared a state of emergency and placed prime minister Abdallah Hamdok and several other senior members of his transitional government under arrest. The military, which described the coup as an effort to stop further anarchy in the country, have been holding discussions with the protesters since the takeover.
"Beja tribal leaders reached a deal with the new administration to temporarily halt protests and engage in negotiations for their demands to be heard and resolved amicably," Mahjoub Hassan Abdel Qader, director-general of Sudan's Khartoum refinery, told Argus today.
Qader said the protests escalated last week, leading to both pipelines being blocked. Burhan has refuted claims by the Hamdok government that the masterminds behind the coup have been spearheading the port blockade as a means to capture power.
