Sudan's al-Bashir says he will step down in 2020

Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir has said he will step down in 2020.

VIDEO: Sudan's Bashir 'to stand down in 2020': In an exclusive interview with the BBC President Omar al-Bashir… https://t.co/kOEjtDZES6

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According to media reports, the president who has been in power since 1989 said that his job is exhausting and his current term will be the last.

“In 2020, there will be a new president and I will be an ex-president,” he told the BBC.

However, skeptics say that he had already pledged to step down in the past but went back on his word.

The president was re-elected in 2015 with an estimated 94% of the total vote in an election that was boycotted by the main opposition citing lack of transparency.

Bashir also denied allegations of abuses carried out by Sudanese troops in renewed violence against black African villages who took up arms in western Darfur region.

He further added that there was no reason for the UN peacekeepers and aid workers to stay in the troubled Darfur region.

The UN estimates that at least 2.5 million people have been displaced in Darfur since 2003.

But according to Bashir these estimates that 2.5 million people were living in camps in Darfur were “much too inflated” and the true figure is closer to 160,000.

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Bashir in 2009, accusing him of masterminding genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur, where an estimated 300,000 people were killed and more than 2 million displaced.