Sudan's al-Burhan: Gestures Aren't Enough - Analysts

Sudan's leader, General al-Burhan, said he lifted the "state of emergency" order and the freeing of detainees to create a “conducive environment for dialogue” between military leaders and civilians.

Transitional Sovereign Council spokesperson Yasmin Ibrahim added the Council also decided to allow an Arab TV channel - al Jazeera- to resume broadcasting.

The state of emergency was lifted after two anti-coup protesters were killed during demonstrations on Saturday. The head of the UN mission in Sudan, Volker Perthes, said in a tweet Sunday he was “appalled by the violent death of two young protesters in Khartoum,” once again called for the violence to stop.

University of Missouri historian and and political analyst Abdullahi Ali Ibrahim told VOA that al-Burhan’s measures are not enough to build trust with Sudanese civilians.

“Lifting the emergency laws is irrelevant really, and they should have started with something else, because with the emergency law as is, no one stopped doing whatever the law was issued to stop such as demonstrations and all other kinds of activities,” Ibrahim told VOA.

The violent crackdown in Sudan has left nearly 100 people dead and hundreds wounded, according to pro-democracy medics.

“There’s a serious stalemate in Sudan," he added, "a stalemate between the people who supported or initiated the coup and...the population or what we call the revolutionary side of the equation. The stalemate is real there."

Ibrahim told South Sudan in Focus that adding civilians are not interested in negotiations.

The analyst believes the stalemate can only be broken if serious measures are taken by the international community Sudan's military leaders.

He suggested "More drastic steps with [against] the coup, for example, sanctioning the police component. The American government is sanctioning some departments here and there. We would like to see more of that,” said Ibrahim.

Meanwhile, The United Nations, the African Union and regional multinational group IGAD are leading a political process to restore a civilian-led democratic transition in Sudan. The process has achieved little progress since it started early this year.