A presidential decree stipulated that the new service would be a regular force under the immediate supervision of the president and under the direct responsibility of its director general, official Omdurman Radio and Al-Anbaa newspaper said.

Although he was not named in the decree, current security authority chief Maj. Gen. Salah Abdullah will likely be the director general of the incorporated body as he was earlier this month entrusted by Al-Bashir to also assume the duties of chief of intelligence.

The duties of the National Security and Intelligence Service will be maintenance of security and unity, gathering and analyzing information, probing and revealing any activities that could jeopardize the security and safety of Sudan, the decree said.

The service will also be tasked with detecting and fighting subversive and terrorist activities by groups and organizations inside and outside Sudan, the decree added.

Meanwhile, the independent English-language newspaper, The Khartoum Monitor, has resumed publication after the Sudanese authorities lifted a four-month suspension, the chief editor said yesterday.

The security authority and the National Press Council permitted The Khartoum Monitor to go on the newsstands “after I signed an undertaking of commitment to the relevant provisions of the law and constitution,” chief editor Alfred Taban told AFP.

The daily reappeared on Monday.

In late November, the government suspended The Khartoum Monitor pending an investigation into charges that it undermined the country’s interests.

At the time, Sudan’s prosecutor for anti-government crimes, Muhammad Farid Ahmed, was quoted as saying the daily did not serve the interests of the country or its people.

The Khartoum Monitor wrote about slavery, questioned the independence of the judiciary and an expected peace agreement between the government and southern rebels, the prosecutor was quoted as saying by the Sudan Media Center.