BEVERLY HILLS, April 07, (THEWILL) – 72-yr-old Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir, has promised to step down in 2020 at the expiration of his tenure having won another election in April 2015.
Al-Bashir made this known to newsmen on Thursday, adding that his job was “exhausting” and that “there will be a new president” in 2020, when his current mandate expires.
Al-Bashir, who has been in power since 1989, is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged human rights violations and accusations that armed forces have bombed and torched villages in the Darfur region.
The UN estimates that over 2.5 million people have been displaced since 2003 in the nation’s ongoing conflict, including 100,000 since January, which Al-Bashir describes as inflated.
He has however denied the accusations and declared that UN peacekeepers and aid workers should leave the region.
“As peace has returned to Darfur, I think that they have no role to undertake,’’ he said.
The conflict in Darfur has been raging since 2003, with fighting between the Sudanese government and rebel groups accusing the central government of repressing the region’s non-Arab population.
Story by David Oputah
