Suggestions by Sudan’s top general Tuesday that the prime minister was not detained failed to convince the United Nations or the premier’s office, as both demanded his immediate release.
The defiance of Monday’s military coup from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok’s office matched that on the streets of the capital, where angry citizens stood their ground on barricaded streets where tyres burned.
The coup comes just over two years into a delicate power-sharing arrangement between the military and civilians after the army’s ouster amid enormous street protests in April 2019 of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir.
It has raised fears for the fate of Hamdok, but Sudan’s top general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said the premier was “at my home… in good health” and would be able to return to his own home “when the crisis is over”.
“Yes, we arrested ministers and politicians, but not all” of them, Burhan said at a news conference.
His comments suggested Hamdok was not among those arrested and detained but, shortly after, the Information Ministry, which remains loyal to the prime minister, relayed a statement from his office demanding his immediate release.
The statement appealed for the “liberation of everyone” arrested on Monday along with Hamdok. This included his wife, several of his ministers, and civilian members of the military-civilian council that was in charge of the country’s transition to full civilian rule.
Minutes after the Information Ministry’s appeal, while the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on Sudan’s coup, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Hamdok “must be released immediately”, in a statement adding to global condemnation of Monday’s power grab.
“No to military rule”, “The revolution will go on” and “Returning to the past is not an option”, protesters in Sudan chanted, a day after the armed forces seized power and reportedly shot dead at least four people.
– Backlash –
Burhan’s declaration of a state of emergency and dissolution of the government provoked an immediate international backlash.
The United States, a key backer of Sudan’s transition, strongly condemned the military’s actions and suspended hundreds of millions of dollars in aid.
Sudan risks “going back into a period of being shunned by the rest of the world” and not having the international financial and development assistance” it badly needs, said Alex de Waal, a veteran expert on Sudan who is executive director of the World Peace Foundation.
Hamdok’s government earlier this year won international debt forgiveness, after the US rescinded its state sponsor of terror designation against the country.
Announcing the state of emergency on Monday, Burhan said the army took action “to rectify the revolution’s course”.
Sudan’s ambassadors to Belgium, France and Switzerland did not see it that way. They announced their defection on Tuesday.
They declared their diplomatic missions as “embassies of the Sudanese people and their revolution”, according to the Information Ministry.
Despite the previous day’s deadly violence, protesters remained on the streets of Khartoum overnight and into Tuesday.
Shops around the capital were shuttered following calls for a campaign of civil disobedience.
“We will only leave when the civilian government is restored,” said 32-year-old demonstrator Hisham al-Amin.
It was the latest coup in one of the world’s most underdeveloped countries, which has experienced only rare democratic interludes since independence in 1956.
Analysts said the generals are trying to maintain their historic control.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed concern over the reported use of live ammunition against protesters.
A troika of countries previously involved in mediating Sudanese conflicts — the US, UK and Norway — said “the actions of the military represent a betrayal of the revolution”.
The European Union, African Union and Arab League also expressed concern.
– Divisions –
Bashir, who ruled Sudan with an iron fist for three decades, is in jail in Khartoum following a corruption conviction.
He is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide over the civil war in Darfur.
The 2019 power-sharing deal after his fall saw Sudan ruled by a Sovereign Council of civilian and military representatives tasked with overseeing a transition to a full civilian government.
In recent weeks, the cracks in the leadership had grown wide.
Days before the coup, two factions of the civilian movement that spearheaded demonstrations against Bashir protested on opposite sides of the debate.
Tensions have long simmered within that movement, known as the Forces for Freedom and Change, but divisions ratcheted up after what the government said was a failed coup on September 21 this year.
Burhan had dismissed as “slander” suggestions that the army was involved in that manoeuvre.
The mainstream FFC appealed on Monday for a nationwide campaign of “civil disobedience”.
Analysts have expressed concern that resistance to the coup could be brutally repressed.
