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Rabat – The Sudanese army has launched what seems to be a coup, placing Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok under house arrest, as well as a large number of Sudanese party leaders and cabinet members.
The unjustified arrests caused pro-democracy protesters to take to the streets, demonstrating their anger by blocking roads and lighting fires in the capital Khartoum. At least a dozen people were injured during the protest.
Since a failed coup plot in September 2021, tensions have been gradually arising between the military forces and civilian groups.
“The detentions were carried out by joint military forces and those arrested were being held in an unidentified location,” stated the Sudanese information ministry through a Facebook post.
According to the statement, the protesters rejecting the apparent military coup were met with gunfire near the military’s headquarters in the capital.
The Sudanese military raided media headquarters to detain staff there. Witnesses say the internet is down across the country, Khartoum airport is closed, and international flights are suspended.
Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the military officer who heads a power-sharing ruling council, dissolved the council and announced a state of emergency, explaining that the military needed to “protect the country’s safety and security.”
He said, “We guarantee the armed forces’ commitment to completing the democratic transition until we hand over to a civilian elected government.”
Images circulating on social media showed the industry minister, Ibrahim al-Sheikh, being taken from his home. The minister’s daughter later confirmed the news.
The Umma party, one of the country’s largest political parties, described the events as an attempted coup, and called for people to protest.
A tweet from the UK’s special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, Robert Fairweather, reads: “Military arrests of civilian leaders would be a betrayal of the revolution, the transition and the Sudanese people.”
The Sudanese ministry of information said, “Mr. Hamdok is being pressed to support a coup but was refusing to do so and he urged people to continue with peaceful protests to defend the revolution.”
“We urge the masses to go out on the streets and occupy them, close all roads with barricades, stage a general labor strike, and not to cooperate with the putschists and use civil disobedience to confront them,” said the Sudanese Professionals Association, a main activist coalition in the uprising against Bashir, on Facebook.
Sudan is currently nearing a period of confrontation between the armed forces and the people, with more protests on the way.
The northeast African country has been unable to find a stable political system since it gained its independence in 1956, and has as a result seen many coups attempts.
