Sudan's ruling body on Thursday appointed two top judicial officials, including the northeast African country's first ever female chief of the judiciary, state media reported. Veteran Supreme Court judge Neemat Abdullah Kheir was appointed as chief of the judiciary by the 11-member ruling sovereign council, the official SUNA news agency reported.

The sovereign council also appointed Taj Al-Sir Ali as the country's new prosecutor general. Kheir's appointment is seen to be in line with the transitional authorities' aim to achieve gender balance given that Sudanese women were at the forefront of the uprising that led to the ouster of autocrat Omar al-Bashir in April. Her appointment comes weeks after Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok appointed Asma Mohamed Abdalla, a seasoned diplomat, as the country's first ever female foreign minister.

On Thursday, the sovereign council also extended by three months the nationwide state of emergency, which had been imposed by Bashir on February 22. Bashir had imposed the emergency law as a last ditch effort to crush the protest movement that had swelled against his ironfisted rule of three decades. The extended state of emergency comes into effect on Friday.

Protests erupted against Bashir's rule in December after his then government tripled the price of bread. The protests swiftly escalated into a nationwide movement against his rule that finally saw the army ousting him on April 11.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019