Sudan’s army leaders have called for elections in the country to be held within nine months after fresh protests brought the end of an agreement between the opposition and military.

The regime of President Omar al-Bashir was toppled in April after months of protests. The army moved against the former leader and appeared to be working with the opposition. An agreement was in place for elections to take place in three years time as the opposition said that it would take that long for the grip of the old regime on the levers of power to be loosened.

However the military launched a brutal attack on protesters in Khartoum recently and has been condemned internationally. The head of the Transitional Military Council, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, said in a statement broadcast on state television that they had decided to “stop negotiating with the Alliance for Freedom and Change and cancel what had been agreed on”.

Opposition groups believe that elections held in just nine months time will allow remnants of the old regime to maintain their grip on power.