Lt-Gen Omar Zain al-Abidin, from Sudan's governing military council, is continuing to address the press. Here is some more of what he is saying:

"This transitional period is fixed as a maximum...

"The people are required to sit together and engage in a dialogue. You come up with the formation of the government. We will monitor from a distance. We will not dictate any order.

"The defence minister and the interior minister will be from the armed forces. This is to maintain security and public order. This is why I want the people to support the military.

"We will support all the people’s demands. We will protect the people’s demands. Yet we will respond firmly to any chaos."

Sudan's military council is giving a press conference at the moment.

Lt Gen Omar Zain al-Abidin is speaking. Here are some quotes from his opening statement:

"Our key responsibility is to maintain public order. We will have zero tolerance for any misdeed in any corner of the country.

"The solutions will be devised by those in protest. You the people will provide the solutions for all economic and political issues. We have come with no ideology, we have come here to maintain order and security to provide the opportunity for the people of Sudan to achieve the change they aspire to."

"We have no ambition to hold the reins of power. We are here to provide an all inclusive umbrella. We wish to take the country forward."

"We are for the people’s demands, that’s why we should engage in a civilised manner in peaceful conversation. We invite all political forces to come, gather and listen, so that this atmosphere would be taken to a higher level and the aspirations of the people are realised."

Image source, AFP

The head of the UN's human rights body has urged Sudanese authorities to release people arrested while protesting peacefully.

Michelle Bachelet said the authorities must also restrain from using force and should also investigate the use of force since the anti-government demonstrations began in December.

"This is a very critical, volatile moment for Sudan and there is deep uncertainty and unease about the future," Ms Bachelet said.

Thousands of protesters are still camped outside the defence ministry in the capital, Khartoum, to push for a civilian government after the military ousted President Omar al-Bashir after 30 years of autocratic rule.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Image source, Reuters

Lt Gen Awad Ibn Auf has been sworn in as the head of the military council in Sudan that's supposed to oversee a two-year transition to civilian rule.

On Thursday he announced the overthrow of Omar al-Bashir and the "uprooting of the regime". But he is seen as being very close to the deposed president:

• He was Mr Bashir's defence minister and had been appointed first vice-president in February when the former president reshuffled the cabinet
• He was seen as being well placed to succeed Mr Bashir
• He was head of military intelligence during the Darfur conflict
• In 2007, the US imposed sanctions on him in relation to his alleged support of the Janjaweed militia blamed for atrocities in the Darfur region
• In 2008, he was named deputy chief of staff of the military but was sacked two years later
• He was appointed defence minister 2015

Last week, Lt Gen Ibn Auf said:

Protesters have defied a curfew imposed by the new military authority and they are still occupying the square outside the militarily headquarters in the capital, Khartoum.

The mood is celebratory judging from videos being shared online.

This one shows people singing, dancing and playing violins and other instruments:

Another video being shared widely is from last night showing a soldier playing a saxophone and another doing a jig while clutching his automatic weapon.

There's concern in neighbouring South Sudan that the removal of Sudan's longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir could unsettle its own peace plan that ended a five-year civil war, news agency Reuters reports.

Sudan was a guartantor of the peace deal signed last September that envisions the formation of a joint government involving President Salva Kiir and ex-rebel leader Riek Machar.

“Sudan laboured so hard to restore peace and stability and because of that we have the current prevailing peace agreement in South Sudan and it is a guarantor,” South Sudan's Cabinet Affairs Minister Martin Elia Lomoro said.

The relationship between Sudan and South Sudan had thawed in recent months because both countries desperately needed the cash generated by oil from South Sudan flowing through a pipeline and port owned by Sudan.

According to Brussels-based think tank International Crisis Group, the ouster of Mr Bashir gives Mr Kiir much more responsibility.

“Kiir holds the cards. It depends if Kiir wants to concede enough to end the war... there is no longer much external pressure to keep this peace process moving forward ... it could all fall apart or it could put fire under their feet to move forward on their own," Alan Boswell from the organisation told Reuters.

On Thursday the Pope kissed the feet of Mr Kiir and his rival Mr Machar, after 24 hours of prayer in the Vatican to urge them to end the conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions.

In an editorial, Kenya's privately owned The Standard newspaper writes that the overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir in Sudan is a "sobering lesson for Africa's strongmen".

They should "manage their exit or someone else will," the paper adds, external.

And in the UK's Guardian newspaper, columnist Nesrine Malik writes that Mr Bashir built a security state, and "despite years of an international human rights industry bearing down on him, in the end it was the Sudanese people who ousted him, armed with nothing but 30 years of anger, external.

Anne Soy
BBC Africa, Nairobi

Image source, AFP

Few of the people on the streets of Sudan's capital, Khartoum, believe real change is on the way.

As they continue their sit-in outside the army headquarters, the protesters have been chanting, "The first one fell, the second one will also fall" - a reference to the appointment of ousted President Omar al-Bashir's number two - Defence Minister Awad Ibn Auf - as head of the transitional military council that will run Sudan.

A Twitter account set up this month in the name of the woman, who has become a symbol of protests in Sudan is fake, says prominent Sudanese journalist Yousra ElBagir, who works for Channel 4 News:

Alaa Salah was photographed earlier this week by Lana Haroun chanting during protests against long-time President Omar al-Bashir, who has since been ousted.

The iconic image shows Ms Salah dressed in a white thobe and gold moon earrings, with her right index finger pointing to the sky.

Aya Ibrahim, an Egyptian journalist working for Deutsche Welle responding to ElBagir’s tweet, said that those running the @iAlaaSalah account had told her that they were fans of Ms Salah, but were not in direct contact with her, external.

One of the tweets from the account said that Ms Salah was getting death threats after the photo went viral.

Correction 12/04/2019: This entry has been amended to reflect that the Twitter account does not belong to the protester Alaa Salah.

BBC Monitoring

The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) - which spearheaded protests against the deposed President Omar al-Bashir - has called on people to congregate at the army headquarters in the capital, Khartoum, for the weekly Muslim Friday prayers.

In a statement, it said "the revolution is continuing" and the armed forces should hand power to a civilian transitional government.

The SPA appealed to protesters outside the capital to march to the headquarters of garrisons in their towns and perform Friday prayers there.

The SPA has rejected the army's announcement of a two-year transitional military council, saying it wanted the whole "regime" to fall.

Defence Minister Awad Ibn Auf has been sworn as the leader of the new military junta at a ceremony witnessed by Chief Justice Abdul Majid Idris.

The military is expected to brief diplomats and the media later on Friday about its decision to take power, and organise elections in two years.

Image source, AFP

Ethiopia's foreign affairs ministry has called for a "peaceful solution" to the crisis in Sudan after the military took power in a coup, ending President Omar al-Bashir's 30-year-rule.

In a statement, the ministry said:

Nigeria's Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama has called for "constitutional order" to be restored in Sudan as soon as possible.

In a BBC Pidgin interview, he added that "there should be no violence - and that is absolutely key and cardinal".

“We have another al-Bashir in Sudan,” veteran opposition politician Farouk Abu Issa said, in his response to Defence Minister Awad Ibn Auf leading a coup against his boss, Omar al-Bashir.

"We want this to be stopped. We want democracy in Sudan," he added.

Listen to him being interviewed by BBC Newsday's James Copnall:

The hashtags #Sudan and #SudanUprising are trending on Twitter, with some people saying they will not rest until the country is handed back to civilians.

On Thursday, long-time President Omar al Bashir was overthrown and put under house arrest.

But Sudanese have opposed a transitional military council and are now demanding a civilian-led transition.

Here's what some people said on Twitter:

One person posted an image of a second scene in a film waiting to begin.

Barbara Plett Usher
BBC News, Washington

Image source, Reuters

The US State Department has expressed support for a civilian-led transition in Sudan and said it should happen sooner than the two-year period set by the military.

"The Sudanese people should determine who leads them, and the people are demanding a civilian-led transition, and the position is that they should be allowed to do so sooner than two years from now," said spokesman Robert Palladino.

He did not clarify whether the US considered the military's ouster of President Omar al-Bashir a coup, or whether the US would deal with the Defence Minister Awad Ibn Auf as the interim head of state.

He said the situation was fluid and the State Department might have a final assessment as the facts became more clear.

He also said the US had suspended so-called "Phase Two" meetings with the Sudanese government but would remain open to engagement that supported "meaningful progress in key areas of mutual interest".

"Phase Two" meetings included discussion about reforms aimed at helping Sudan to get off the US list of states that sponsor terrorism.

Read: Are military takeovers on the rise in Africa?

Will Ross
Africa editor, BBC World Service

Image source, AFP

By staying on the streets into the night the many thousands of protesters are sending a clear message that they will not accept the imposition of military rule.

It is not clear how General Awad Ibn Auf and the the rest of the military council will react or whether there is already a clear leadership structure in place.

And given Omar al-Bashir's three decades in office, we can't assume that he has been rendered entirely powerless.

Any use of force against protesters would provoke fury and there is still the very real danger that different elements of Sudan's security forces and militia could turn their guns on each other.

Read: Bashir ousted: How Sudan got here

Image source, Reuters

Large crowds have remained on the streets of Sudan's capital, Khartoum, ignoring a night-time curfew declared by the military after the overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir.

State television announced that Defence minister Awad Ibn Auf would chair a governing military council.

The organisers of the demonstrations described it as a "cloned" administration.

They urged more people onto the streets to protect what they called the revolution, and to push the military to hand power to an interim civilian administration.

Read the full BBC story here

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Welcome back to BBC Africa Live where we will bring you the latest news and views from around the continent, especially Sudan after the overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir in a coup.

That's it from us on this historic day, as we're closing the live page.

We've been following every step as Sudan's military took over from President Omar al-Bashir.

Here's how it happened:

• The military announced at dawn that they would be making an important statement later that day
• Protesters at a sit-in at the army headquarters had to wait until lunchtime for that announcement
• Lt Gen Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Auf announced on state TV that President Omar al-Bashir had been deposed
• He added that the military would supervise a two-year transition period
• Protesters rejected the army's statement and called on people to stay at the sit-in until the military hand over to a civilian government

Image source, AFP