Sudan Military detains PM Abdalla Hamdok, ministers

Addis Ababa, October 25, 2021 (FBC) – Sudan security forces have moved Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok to an unknown location after he refused to issue a statement in support of an ongoing coup, the information ministry said.

The ministry’s statement on Monday came hours after Dubai-based Al-Hadath TV said security forces had besieged the prime minister’s home and placed him under house arrest.

“After he refused to be a part of the coup, a force from the army detained Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and took him to an unidentified location,” the ministry statement said.

Family sources told Al Jazeera the other civilian officials taken into custody include Industry Minister Ibrahim al-Sheikh, and the governor of Sudan’s capital Khartoum, Ayman Khalid.

The men were taken from their homes before dawn, said al-Sheikh’s daughter and Khalid’s wife.

Information Minister Hamza Baloul, media adviser to the Prime Minister, Faisal Mohammed Saleh, and the spokesman for Sudan’s ruling sovereign council, Mohammed al-Fiky Suliman, were also arrested, officials told The Associated Press.

Sudan has been on edge since a failed coup plot last month unleashed bitter recriminations between military and civilian groups meant to be sharing power following the toppling of the country’s long-time leader Omar al-Bashir.

Al-Bashir was toppled after months of street protests in 2019, and a political transition agreed after his removal was meant to lead to elections by the end of 2023.

Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, reporting from Khartoum, said “telecommunications access has been restricted” in the country “so it’s very hard to communicate with people here”.

Source: Al Jazeera