Sudan's Bashir Defies Calls to Step Down as Pressure Mounts
- Only change is through the ballot box, Bashir tells supporters
- Nation roiled by almost a month of anti-government protests
Anti-government demonstrators in Khartoum on Jan. 13.
Photographer: STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images
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Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Monday rejected calls to step down, as protests over his 30-year rule entered their fourth week with doctors decrying abuses by security forces and journalists being arrested.
In a rally of supporters in the Southern Darfur state, al-Bashir stressed that only elections in 2020 would determine who leads the country, Arabic media reported. The speech came as protests mushroomed from the capital, Khartoum, to other cities across the country, including in Darfur.