Sudan's Islamist ideologue Hassan Turabi on Tuesday declared he was forming a breakaway party, crowning a split with President Omar Bashir whom he helped seize power in a 1989 coup.
Turabi told a press conference at his Khartoum residence that his party would be called the People's National Congress (PNC) to "distinguish it from the government's National Congress."
In a growing power struggle that burst into the open, Beshir declared a state of emergency in December and effectively ousted Turabi as parliamentary speaker by dissolving parliament.
After efforts at a compromise failed, Bashir then suspended Turabi in May as the National Congress party's secretary general -- KHARTOUM (AFP)
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