General dissolves government in Sudan and decrees state of emergency

Sudanese General Abdel Fattah al Burhan dissolved the country’s transitional authorities on Monday, whose civilian members are almost all detained, and decreed a state of emergency, while there were already injuries among the pro-democracy protesters who took to the streets.

Since the morning, the “coup” denounced by the international community has been taking place in stages. The prime minister, his wife, several ministers and all civilian members of the Sovereign Council – the highest authority of the transition – were arrested.

State television is in the hands of the military and General Abdel Fattah al Burhan made a statement mid-day.

Sudan, an African country torn by conflict

Although he does not stop repeating that he wants “a civil transition and free elections in 2023”, after 30 years of the dictatorship of Omar al Bashir, the general dismissed all the leaders from their functions.

The government is dissolved, including the Sovereign Council, he said. The prefects and ministers are dismissed and the state of emergency is in force throughout the country, he added.

Before the military official spoke, thousands of protesters had already taken to the streets. In front of the army headquarters, in the center of Khartoum, protected by soldiers for days, 12 protesters were wounded by military fire, according to a union of doctors and the Ministry of Information.

“Protect the revolution”

Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok’s office had called for “demonstrating” against the “coup” to “protect the 2019 revolution” that toppled Bashir.

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Fearing for the life of Hamdok, held “in an unidentified place”, his office warned the military authorities that they were responsible for “all the responsibility for his life” or his death, in a country where there was already a coup attempt a few years ago. month.

“I ask the Armed Forces to immediately release the detainees,” urged the UN envoy for Sudan, Volker Perthes, on Monday, deeming the arrests “unacceptable”.

The United States, whose emissary Jeffrey Feltman was in Hamdok’s office the day before, warned that “any change in the transitional government jeopardizes US aid.”

For his part, the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell urged the international community to “get the Sudanese transition back on track,” and the Arab League also expressed its “deep concern” and called on “all parties to respect” the agreement. power sharing.

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Faced with these calls, General Burhan said that the country would respect the international agreements signed. Sudan is one of the four Arab countries that recently normalized relations with Israel.

Back in the streets

On the streets of Khartoum, where telecommunications are increasingly random, many Sudanese protested and booed General Burhan, AFP journalists found.

“We will not accept a military regime. We are ready to give our lives for the democratic transition ”one of them, Haitham Mohamed, assured AFP.

“We will not leave the streets before the return of the civil government,” said Sawsan Bachir, also between Sudanese flags.

Sudan faces an unstable political transition, marked by divisions and power struggles since the overthrow of Bashir in April 2019.

Since August of that year, the country has been under the command of a civil-military administration in charge of leading the country to a full democratic transition under civilian command, with the ultimate goal of organizing the first free elections in 30 years by the end of 2023.

But in recent days, the tension between the two camps increased. On October 21, tens of thousands of Sudanese marched in various cities to support the full transition of power to civilians and to counter a sit-in that began days earlier in front of the presidential palace in Khartoum to demand the return to military command. (I)