Sudan officials: Officers, Islamists arrested for coup plot

Sudanese security forces have arrested at least a dozen people, including high-ranking army officers and Islamists, for allegedly plotting a coup against the country's ruling generals, two military officials said Wednesday.

It is the second coup plot reported this month in Sudan, where talks between the military and the country's pro-democracy movement have dragged out over the final and crucial part of a power-sharing deal for the nation's transitional period.

Earlier in July, the military council that took over the country after ousting longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in April, said it arrested at least 16 active and retired military officers over an attempted coup.

The two military officials said the newly arrested officers worked for Sudan's military and the national intelligence and security services.

The arrests took place this week and several Islamists, including a former minister, loyal to al-Bashir were also arrested over the same plot, the officials told The Associated Press.

They refused to reveal further details and spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk to the media.

Sudan's ruling generals and pro-democracy factions have yet to sign the second, final part of the power-sharing deal.

They signed a political declaration that outlines the deal last week, after agreeing on a joint sovereign council that will rule for a little over three years while elections are organised.

Both sides say a diplomatic push by the US and its Arab allies was key to ending the weeks-long standoff that raised fears of all-out civil war.

The second, more contentious part of the power-sharing deal the so-called constitutional agreement is meant to specify the division of powers during the transitional period.

Leaders of the pro-democracy movement, known as the Forces for Declaration of Freedom and Change, have been meeting in Ethiopia with leaders of the Revolutionary Front, an alliance of rebel groups who are also part of the movement.

The Revolutionary Front had rejected the power-sharing deal, arguing it failed to meet their demands for the peace.

For decades, Sudan has been convulsed by rebellions in the provinces by ethnic and religious minorities who felt marginalized or oppressed by the Khartoum government, which is dominated by northern Sudanese Arab Muslims.

The Revolutionary Front includes rebel groups from Darfur as well as Blue Nile and South Kordofan provinces.