Calls to release the overthrown prime minister in Sudan increased on Tuesday, the day after the coup led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, who claimed to keep the former head of government at home .
General Burhane is alone in the driver’s seat after announcing on Monday the dissolution of all Sudanese institutions and the arrest of ministers and civilian officials, a coup denounced in the West and which thousands of Sudanese continue to protest in the streets.
The center of the capital Khartoum remains blocked by the demonstrators with stones, branches and burnt tires, while the security forces are deployed with their armored vehicles on the bridges and the main roads. According to a union of pro-democracy doctors, four demonstrators were killed the day before by gunfire from the army.
Already cut off from the world with Internet and telephone connections coming and going, the Sudanese can no longer leave the country: flights to and from Khartoum airport were suspended until Saturday. The airport, located in the city center, is only separated by a fence from the avenues bordering it.
Stuck for two years in a nipped transition, this poor East African country is now plunged into the unknown, as the fall of the autocrat Omar al-Bashir’s regime in 2019 under pressure popular and army and the signing of agreements with the rebels had led to believe in a solution after decades of crises.
Accused of having “betrayed” the 2019 revolt, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, during a river press conference in Khartoum, defended his coup and the army.
He said he had dissolved the authorities responsible for leading the transition to civilian power and elections because “some were attacking the army”, “an essential component of the transition”.
“Yes, we arrested ministers and politicians, but not all”, he added, affirming: the overthrown Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok is “at home”.
Meeting at the UN
But the words of the new strongman of Sudan obviously did not reassure.
UN chief António Guterres immediately called for the “immediate” release of Mr. Hamdok and other “illegally detained” officials, hours before a closed-door meeting of the 15 members of the Security Council on Sudan. .
Likewise, Mr. Hamdok’s office questioned the “putschists” on his fate.
Several countries and organizations have called since Monday to release the overthrown prime minister.
On Monday, the latter, his wife, several of his ministers and civilian leaders were taken away by the military.
General Burhane promised a “competent” government soon, but his coup de force suspended the transition in a country that has remained under the rule of the army almost continuously since its independence.
After the proclamation of “civil disobedience”, thousands of Sudanese have been camping since Monday in the streets to protest against the military coup. They want, they say, “to save” the revolution which overthrew General Bashir, at the cost of a repression which had left more than 250 dead.
Even if we now know where the head of government is, “we will not leave the streets until the civilian government is reinstalled,” Hocham al-Amine, a 32-year-old engineer, told AFP. “We will never agree to a partnership with the army again. “
“People’s embassies”
“Use of force would not only lead to bloodshed […] but could also lead to a prolonged face-to-face meeting which would close the door to the resolution of the crisis, ”warned the think tank International Crisis group, commenting on the death of demonstrators on Monday.
In the face of the coup, the United States suspended $ 700 million in aid to Sudan. And for the Troika – United States, Great Britain and Norway – maneuvering on the Sudanese issue, “the actions of the military betray the revolution and the transition”.
Sudanese ambassadors to France, Belgium and the European Union and Switzerland denounced the coup and proclaimed their embassies as those of “the people and their revolution”.
For demonstrators and experts, the possibility of a return to the unchallenged reign of the military is more realistic than ever.
Only Moscow saw in the coup “the logical result of a failed policy” accompanied by “extensive foreign interference”, in a country where Russians, Turks, Americans or even Saudis compete for influence especially over the ports of the Red Sea, strategic for their fleets.