Sudan: Opposition leader arrested ahead of peace talk

Sudanese security forces have arrested a senior opposition politician despite an offer from the country’s ruling generals offered to resume talks with the pro-democracy protest movement.

Yasir Arman, the leader of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement North, was arrested in Khartoum on Wednesday morning amid a continuing crackdown that has killed at least 60 people, the group said.

Mr Arman returned from exile take part in talks on a democratic transition after Sudan’s military ousted Omar Bashir, the dictator who ruled for 30 years, in April.

Earlier Lt Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the chairman of the ruling Transitional Military Council, issued a conciliatory statement offering to resume talk with opposition leaders “in the interests of the nation.”

The offer came just 24 hours after Lt Gen Burhan said he would scrap all talks with protest leaders and unilaterally rush through hasty elections in defiance of earlier agreements between the two sides.

His deputy, Lt General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti,  promised an “urgent and transparent” investigation into recent killings by security forces, saying  “any person who crossed boundaries has to be punished.”