UN envoy urges Sudan paramilitary leader to show restraint

The U.N.‘s special envoy for Sudan has met with the powerful leader of a Sudanese paramilitary force, urging him to allow peaceful protests and avoid confrontation in the wake of a military coup earlier this week

CAIRO -- The U.N. special envoy for Sudan met with the powerful leader of a Sudanese paramilitary force, urging him to allow peaceful protests Saturday and avoid confrontation in the wake of a military coup earlier this week.

Pro-democracy activist groups have called for “million-person” marches across the country Saturday to press demands for re-instating a deposed transitional government and releasing senior political figures from detention.

The takeover threatens to derail Sudan's fragile Western-backed transition to democracy which got under way two years ago, after the ouster of long-time autocrat Omar al-Bashir.

The U.N. envoy, Volker Perthes, met late Friday with Gen. Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo, a coup leader seen as close to Sudan's strongman, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan.