Sudan’s general Burhan says PM Hamdok is at his place

The military took power in a coup on Monday.

General Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan told a news conference Tuesday that the military has stepped in after talks with Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and the protest movement to resolve a dispute over the country’s course reached deadlock.

Burhan said Hamdok was in good health.

Pro-democracy protesters blocked roads in Sudan’s capital with makeshift barricades and burning tires Tuesday, a day after the military seized power in the swift coup that has been widely denounced by the international community.

The takeover came after weeks of mounting tensions between military and civilian leaders over the course and the pace of Sudan’s transition to democracy. It threated to derail that process, which has progressed in fits and starts since the overthrow of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in a popular uprising two years ago.

The United Nations Security Council was to discuss the situation in a closed-door meeting later in the day.

US President Joe Biden’s administration announced the suspension of $700 million in emergency assistance to Sudan, a nation in Africa linked by language and culture to the Arab world.

Western governments and the UN condemned the coup and called for the release of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and other senior officials who were arrested Monday.

Mariam al-Mahdi, the foreign minister in the government that the military dissolved, was defiant on Tuesday, declaring that she and other members of Hamdok‘s administration remained the legitimate authority in Sudan.

“We are still in our positions. We reject such coup and such unconstitutional measures,” she told The Associated Press over the phone from her home in Khartoum. “We will continue our peaceful disobedience and resistance.”

Hours after the military arrested Hamdok, Sudanese flooded the streets of the capital, Khartoum, and other cities in protest. At least four people were killed and over 80 wounded when security forces opened fire on protesters, according to the Sudan Doctors’ Committee.

The country and the world are now braced to see if more violence will unfold in the nation, which saw a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Some protesters remained in the streets of Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman on Tuesday morning, with many roads blocked. A bigger test of how the military will respond to the resistance could come on Saturday when protesters plan a mass march to demand a return to civilian rule.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for an immediate halt to violence against protesters and for the restoration of internet services. He said the US was coordinating with partners to “chart a common diplomatic approach to address these actions and to prevent them from leading to further instability in Sudan and the region.”

Troops from the military and the feared Rapid Support Forces patrolled Khartoum neighborhoods overnight, chasing protesters. The international group Human Rights Watch said forces used live ammunition against demonstrators.

On Monday, Burhan, the top military official in Sudan, dissolved the Hamdok government and the Sovereign Council, a joint military and civilian body created soon after al-Bashir’s ouster to run the country. He now heads a military council that he said would rule Sudan until elections in July 2023.

Burhan blamed quarrels and divisions among political factions for the military takeover. However, the coup comes less than a month before Burhan was supposed to hand the leadership of the Sovereign Council to a civilian, a step that would have decreased the military’s hold on power.