Sudan’s President, Omar al- Bashir, has promised to step down in 2020 at the expiration of his tenure.
Speaking to newsmen on Thursday, the 72-year old said his job was “exhausting” and that “there will be a new president” in 2020, when his current mandate expires.
Mr. Al-Bashir, who has been in power since 1989, won an election in April 2015.
The president, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged human rights violations, challenged recent accusations that armed forces have bombed and torched villages in the Darfur region.
He also denied UN estimates that over 2.5 million people have been displaced since 2003 in the nation’s ongoing conflict, including 100,000 since January, describing the figures as inflated. Mr. Al-Bashir said 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 Khartoum of repressing the region’s non-Arab population.
(dpa/NAN)
