The ongoing political standoff between Sudanese opposition protesters and the Transitional Military Council (TMC) over the formation of a new government continues with mediation efforts so far unsuccessful.

Due to the stalemate protest leaders on Wednesday threatened to launch a nationwide campaign of civil disobedience after accusing the country's military rulers of delaying the transfer of power to a civilian administration. 

The threat came simultaneously as thousands of people remained encamped outside military headquarters in the capital Khartoum for nearly four weeks after the toppling of Omar Al Bashir’s regime, the East African reported.

The opposition and the TMC are fighting over the formation of a future ruling council and its composition with the former wanting mainly civilian representation and the latter saying it will not settle for the military to only be in charge of security and defence.

Initially the military council said it had agreed to the opposition’s proposals despite having “many reservations”.

Now the opposition asserts that the transfer of power is deliberate and that military council was moving in the direction of extending the negotiations and not in the direction of a transition of power.

Protest leader Khalid Yousef said the behaviour of the military risked putting the country in jeopardy. When further pressed by journalists as to what steps demonstrators would take, Yousef said there would be a number of escalatory measures.

"The measures of escalation for us are defined – they are continuing with the sit-in, and we are now preparing for a civil disobedience campaign across the country," he said.