Tens of thousands of Sudanese were making their way to the center of the country's capital on Thursday, cheering and clapping in celebration as two senior officials said the military had forced President Omar al-Bashir to step down after 30 years in power.
The circumstances of al-Bashir's apparent ouster and his current whereabouts remained unclear, however. The armed forces were to deliver an "important statement" and asked the nation to wait for it, state TV reported earlier.
The two officials, in high positions in the government and the military, told The Associated Press the army forced al-Bashir to step down and was now in talks about forming a transitional government.
The swirling reports of a coup following nearly four months of street protests against al-Bashir's rule raised expectations it was a sign the president was relinquishing power or was being removed by the military.
Pan-Arab TV networks said top ruling party officials were being arrested. They aired footage of masses they said were heading toward the presidential palace in Khartoum, waving the national flag, chanting, and clapping.
Eyewitnesses in Khartoum said the military had deployed at key sites in the city to secure several installations since the morning hours.
Soldiers had raided both the state television and the offices of the Islamic Movement, the ideological wing of Bashir's ruling National Congress Party, witnesses told AFP.
The protests, which erupted in December over the government's tripling of the price of bread, have become the biggest challenge yet to Bashir's three decades rule.
"We are waiting for big news," one protester told AFP from the sit-in around the army headquarters where protesters have held an unprecedented protest now in its sixth day.
"We won't leave from here until we know what it is. But we do know that Bashir has to go.
"We had enough of this regime -- 30 years of repression, corruption, rights abuses, it's enough."
