Sudan, “coup in Khartoum, premier and ministers under arrest”

Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok was placed under house arrest in the early hours of today after his home was besieged by an unidentified military force. This is reported by Al Hadath TV, quoted by Al Jazeera. The news follows the announcement of the arrest by Sudanese soldiers of various representatives of the civil authorities, including some ministers, the prime minister’s spokesman and a member of the Sovereign Council. From Khartoum, Al Jazeera reports this morning “restrictions on access to telecommunications” which make it difficult to get news on what is happening. For sure, the broadcaster reports, it is known that the Minister of Industry was arrested after posting on social media the news of a military presence in front of his home. It is also known, the same source continues, that the Minister of Information and a spokesman for the premier have also ended up under arrest. And the spokesman of the sovereign council was arrested. The names of those arrested are Ibrahim al-Sheikh, Minister of Industry, Hamza Baloul, Minister of Information, Mohammed al-Fiky Suliman, member of the sovereign council and Faisal Mohammed Saleh, spokesman for the premier. Ayman Khalid, governor of the state of the capital, has also been arrested, according to his Facebook page. Sudan’s Association of Professionals, the country’s main pro-democracy political group, denounced an ongoing coup and invited the population to take to the streets in protest. Since the failed coup last month, the internal tension within the transition authorities has remained high and a few days ago, amid street protests and divisions in the coalition of the Forces of Freedom and Change, the premier had launched an appeal for “dialogue”, and underlined the need for a change to carry out the transition in the country that for 30 years has known only Omar al-Bashir.