KHARTOUM: (Left) Sudan's protest leader Ahmad Rabie flashes the victory gesture alongside General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, the chief of Sudan's ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC), during a ceremony where they signed a "constitutional declaration" yesterday. - AFP

KHARTOUM:
Rapturous crowds filled the streets of Khartoum yesterday as Sudan's generals
and protest leaders signed a historic deal paving the way to civilian rule.
Thousands of cheering people gathered around the Friendship Hall next to the
Nile, where the documents that will govern Sudan's 39-month transition were
signed. "This is the biggest celebration I have ever seen in my country.
We have a new Sudan," said Saba Mohammed, a veiled 37-year woman, waving a
small plastic flag.

Minutes earlier,
the deal was signed by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, deputy chief of the military
council, and Ahmed Al-Rabie, representing the Alliance for Freedom and Change
protest umbrella. Heads of state, prime ministers and dignitaries from several
countries - including Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Egypt's Premier
Mustafa Madbuli - attended the ceremony.

The
constitutional declaration formalizes the creation of a transition
administration that will be guided by an 11-member sovereign council, comprised
of six civilians and five military figures. The agreement brought an end to
nearly eight months of upheaval that saw masses mobilize against president Omar
Al-Bashir, who was ousted in April after 30 years in power. Thousands of people
had arrived on trains from Sudan's provinces to take part in the celebrations,
which will include a huge gathering in Khartoum's main gardens.

"We hope
Sudan can move forward now, we want to be proud of our country," said
Saida Khalifa as she got off the train after an all-night ride from Atbara, the
town where the protests started in December last year. "The guns must go
silent now and we must pull the country out of this mess to gain peace and
freedom," she said. One young girl wearing jeans and draped in a Sudanese
flag rode a bicycle to the conference hall, an inconceivable sight in the
conservative country even a few months ago. "This is the biggest
celebration I have ever seen in my country. We have a new Sudan," said
Saba Mohammed, a veiled 37-year-old woman, waving a small plastic flag.

The composition
of the civilian-majority transition ruling council is to be announced today.
That follows the naming on Thursday of former senior UN official Abdalla
Hamdok, a veteran economist, as transitional prime minister. He is expected to
focus on stabilizing Sudan's economy, which went into a tailspin when the
oil-rich south seceded in 2011. Economic woes were the trigger that sparked the
initial protests.

At Khartoum's
central market early yesterday, shoppers and stallholders interviewed by AFP
all said they hoped a civilian government would help them put food on the
table. "Everybody is happy now," said Ali Yusef, a 19-year-old
university student who works in the market to get by. "We were under the
control of the military for 30 years but today we are leaving this behind us
and moving towards civilian rule," he said, sitting next to tomatoes piled
directly on the ground. "All these vegetables around are very expensive
but now I'm sure they will become cheaper."

While it remains
to be seen how the transition will change people's daily lives, residents old
and young were eager to exercise their newfound freedom of expression.
"I'm 72 and for 30 years under Bashir, I had nothing to feel good about.
Now, thanks to God, I am starting to breathe," said Ali Issa Abdel Momen,
sitting in front of his modest selection of vegetables at the market. But many
Sudanese are already questioning the ability of the transitional institutions
to rein in the military elite's powers during the three-year period leading to
planned elections.

The country of 40
million people will be ruled by an 11-member sovereign council and a
government, which under the deal must be dominated by civilians. However, the
interior and defense ministers are to be chosen by military members of the
council. Observers have warned that the transitional government will have
little leverage to counter any attempt by the military to roll back the
uprising's achievements and seize back power.

Security forces
deployed across Khartoum yesterday for the biggest international event in years
in Sudan, which had become something of a pariah country under Bashir's rule.
One of the most immediate diplomatic consequences of the compromise reached
this month could be Sudan's return to the African Union, which suspended the
country's membership in June. Bashir, who took power in a 1989 coup and is
wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide in the Darfur
region, had been slated to appear in court yesterday on corruption charges. But
his trial has been postponed to an as yet undetermined date.