Opposition to step up pressure on Sudan's Bashir

Sudanese opposition groups have agreed to escalate monetary and political pressures to topple the government in Khartoum, Sudan’s former prime minister said yesterday.

Sadek El Mahdi said recent talks in Eritrean between opposition leaders "resulted in restricting the joint military command of the different groups to make them more cohesive and to plan an escalation of the military activity against the Regina." He also told Cairo that they discussed ways to enhance political pressure on Khartoum,

Mahdi, who escaped Khartoum last December and is on the opposition leadership council, was at the Eritrean talks in June as a rebel National Democratic Alliance member.

Senior Sudan opposition officials, including the Democratic Unionist Party’s (SPLA) John Garang, Umma’s Mubarak al Mahdi, and Sudanese Alligance Forces' Abdul Aziz Khalid, attended the talks.