Sudan’s prime minister resigns two months after coup and after violent repression

Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok, the face of the long-awaited transition to a democratic civilian regime in Sudan, announced his resignation on Sunday night, two months later of the military coup in the country and after days of violent repression.

In a speech on public television, Hamdok admitted that he had failed in his attempt to achieve consensus and warned that the “survival” of Sudan is today “threatened”.

According to him, the different political forces in this country that emerged in 2019 of a 30-year-old military-Islamist dictatorship led by Omar al Bashir, they are too “fragmented”. To this is added that the civil and military leaders have irreconcilable positions so that a “consensus” puts an end to “a bloodbath” and makes the slogan of the 2019 revolt a reality: “Freedom, peace and justice”.

This former UN economist who managed to get part of Sudan’s debt buried and brought it out of international isolation, has not had a moment of rest since the coup of October 25, 2021.

That day, General Abdel Fattah al Burhan, head of the army, ordered his house arrest. And next to him that of all those who embodied that transition to a civil regime since 2019.

General Burhan extended his mandate for two years and a month after dissolving the institutions, returned to place Hamdok in the position of prime minister but after having replaced many people in charge of this civil transition.

“Neither association nor negotiation”

By agreeing to a deal with Burhan, Hamdok ceases to be a hero and becomes a traitor to many Sudanese. The protesters who criticized Burhan in the streets also went on to criticize him. In a country run by the military for practically the last 65 years, a large part of the citizens do not want “neither association nor negotiation” with the army.

And they say it loud and clear even if they endanger their lives, as happened this Sunday, when thousands of Sudanese took to the streets again and three of them were killed by security forces, shot and beaten.

Since October 25, at least 57 civilians have been killed in the violent crackdown on these protests and hundreds have been injured.

The security forces blocked the bridges that link Khartoum with its suburbs and the main arteries of the capital since dawn on Sunday, as they do every time demonstrations against the coup are called.

What’s more, the authorities once again cut off mobile internet access and the operation of mobile phones for hours. And members of the security forces watched passersby from armored vehicles armed with heavy machine guns.

Despite this deployment, thousands of protesters attended the call “in memory of the martyrs” of the bloody repression this Sunday.

“Power to the people”

Protesters they again called for the return of the military to the barracks and were violently dispersed as they approached the surroundings of the presidential palace, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.

The protesters emphasize that in 2022 the resistance must “continue” and demand justice not only for the civilians killed since the coup, but also for the more than 250 people killed during the popular “revolution” of 2019, which forced the army to expel al Bashir.

In addition to the deaths and the telephone and internet cuts, the UN denounces the rape of at least 13 protesters in December, in a country that, since its independence 65 years ago, has almost always been under the control of the military.

European countries have already expressed their outrage at the escalation of violence, as well as the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and the UN.

All regularly advocate a return to dialogue as a precondition for resuming international aid cut off after the coup.

Blinken already warned that the United States was “ready to respond to all those who want to prevent the Sudanese from continuing to aspire to a civil and democratic government.” (I)