Sudan disbands ex-ruling party

Sudan’s transitional authorities on Thursday approved a law to “dismantle” the regime of former President Omar al-Bashir, including the dissolution of his political party and confiscation of all its properties.

Bashir and his Islamist National Congress Party (NCP) had ruled Sudan since 1989 before a nationwide protest movement resulted in him being deposed earlier this year.

The law titled “Dismantling of the regime of 30th June 1989” was approved by the country’s new ruling sovereign council and the cabinet led by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.

Hamdok said the new law is not an act of revenge, but al-Bashir’s party condemned the decision as made by an “illegal gov’t”.

The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), which spearheaded the protests against Bashir, welcomed the law, saying it was “an important step on the path to building a democratic civilian state.

The ousted President’s career has been defined by war. He came to power in a military coup in 1989 and ruled what was until 2011 Africa’s largest country with an iron fist.

When he seized power, Sudan was in the midst of a 21-year civil war between north and south.

Although his government signed a deal to end that conflict in 2005, another war was breaking out at the same time—in the western region of Darfur, where Bashir is accused of organizing war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC). He is now detained in a prison in Khartoum.