Abdallah Hamdok, prime minister sidelined after the military coup in Sudan, must return to his post under an agreement reached with the country’s strongman General Abdel Fattah Al-Bourhane, announced on Sunday November 21 mediators.
“A political agreement has been reached between General Bourhane, Abdallah Hamdok, political forces and civil society organizations for Hamdok’s return to his post and the release of political detainees”said one of the Sudanese mediators, Fadlallah Burma, a leader of the opposition Umma party. A group of Sudanese mediators issued a statement confirming the deal.
This includes the reinstatement of Mr. Hamdok in his functions, the release of the detainees and the return to the political, legal and constitutional consensus that managed the transition period launched after the fall in 2019 of the regime of General Omar Al-Bashir in 2019. , pushed aside by the army under pressure from the streets.
“The agreement will be officially announced later today, after the signing of the terms of the agreement and the accompanying political declaration”, according to the press release.
General Bourhane, until then inflexible
The military were slow to name the new government they had been promising for weeks after Mr. Hamdok was sidelined, placed under house arrest.
But faced with calls for the return of civil power, General Al-Bourhane had until then remained inflexible. He had reappointed to the head of the highest institution of the transition, the Sovereignty Council, and had renewed all its military or pro-army members and appointed apolitical civilians. General Bourhane, on the other hand, seemed to loosen the grip the day after Wednesday’s murderous day, by re-establishing the country’s Internet connection, cut since he took power on October 25.
In leading a coup on October 25, General Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Al-Bourhane, head of the army, reshuffled the cards for a shaky transition in Sudan. He arrested almost all civilians in power, put an end to the sacred union formed by civilians and soldiers and declared a state of emergency.
Since then, protests against the army calling for the return of civilian power have taken place, mainly in Khartoum, and have often been suppressed. On Saturday, hundreds of demonstrators marched in Khartoum-Nord, a suburb of the capital, erected barricades in the streets and set tires on fire, according to an Agence France-Presse correspondent. “No to military power! “, they chanted. Others took to the streets in the east and south of the capital, according to witnesses. About 40 people have died since the October 25 coup, most of them protesters.