SUDAN EVENTS SPARK CONCERN AMONG WORLD LEADERS

▶ US senator gives warning that Washington could cut aid to Khartoum if the transitional government is not restored to power

World leaders have expressed concern and alarm after Sudan’s military placed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok under house arrest and detained other civilian ministers.

Crowds gathered on the streets of Khartoum yesterday to protest against the move.

Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the UN, condemned the “ongoing military coup in Sudan” and called for the immediate release of Mr Hamdok and his colleagues.

“There must be full respect for the constitutional charter to protect the hard-won political transition,” Mr Guterres said yesterday.

“The UN will continue to stand with the people of Sudan.”

Volker Perthes, the UN’s special representative for the country, said the organisation was “deeply concerned” about the situation and “attempts to undermine” the country’s transition to democracy.

Jeffrey Feltman, US special envoy for the Horn of Africa, said Washington was “deeply alarmed at reports of a military takeover” of the Sudanese transitional government. He was in Sudan at the beginning of this month in an effort to defuse tension in the country after a failed coup attempt.

Sudanese authorities said people loyal to former president Omar Al Bashir were behind the coup attempt.

The latest developments threaten “the democratic aspirations of the Sudanese people”, Mr Feltman said.

The US embassy in Khartoum issued a statement yesterday urging anyone disrupting the country’s transition to democracy to stand down and allow the civilian-led government to continue its work.

Sudan’s access to international funding could also be affected by the arrest of civilian government officials.

Chris Coons, a US senator and a member of the foreign relations committee, said on Twitter that Washington could cut aid to Sudan “if the authority of PM Hamdok and the full transitional government is not restored”.

The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he was following events with the “utmost concern”.

“The EU calls on all stakeholders and regional partners to put back on track the transition process,” he said.

French President Emmanuel Macron also condemned the coup and called for the immediate release of Mr Hamdok and his ministers.

Sudan is a member of the Arab League and the group’s Secretary General, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, has called on all parties to “fully abide” by the constitutional declaration signed in August 2019.

The document aimed to pave the way for a transition to civilian rule and democratic elections after about three decades under Al Bashir.

Mr Aboul Gheit called for the situation to be resolved with talks. “It is important to respect all decisions and agreements that were decided upon … refraining from any measures that would disrupt the transitional period and shake stability in Sudan,” he said.

Elsewhere in the Mena region, Saudi Arabia said it was following events with “great concern” and called for “restraint, calm and non-escalation”.

Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairman of the African Union Commission, said there should be an “immediate resumption” of discussions between the Sudanese military and the country’s civilian leaders.

The African Union suspended Sudan in June 2019 over violence against pro-democracy protesters who gathered outside the army headquarters in Khartoum to call for a change to civilian rule.

The country was reinstated as a member three months later after Mr Hamdok announced the appointment of its first Cabinet since Al Bashir was removed from power.

“The chairperson calls for the immediate resumption of consultations between civilians and military within the framework of the political declaration and the constitutional decree,” Mr Faki said.

He expressed “deep dismay” at the latest developments in Sudan.

He said “dialogue and consensus” offered the only path for Sudan to salvage its troubled transition to democracy.

He urged the military to release all arrested political leaders and show “the necessary strict respect of human rights”.

French President Emmanuel Macron was among the world leaders to call for the release of Abdalla Hamdok

It has never been easy to hold Sudan together. The secession of South Sudan a decade ago proved as much, but the difficulty of maintaining national unity has been known to Khartoum’s generals, Sudan’s most powerful figures, since long before that. The country is plagued by political divisions, and preventing them from degenerating into chaos has consistently been cited by the army as the reason for past military coups.

And yet, in 2019, unity appeared to make a show of force on Sudan’s streets, when a broad coalition of civil society members, opposition politicians, students and professional associations banded together to form the Forces of Freedom and Change. Its popularity prompted the country’s generals to remove Omar Al Bashir, Sudan’s then president, from office, and a power-sharing deal was agreed to between the FFC and the army until elections could be held at the end of 2022.

Now, there are fears that unity will, once again, prove to be short-lived. Before dawn yesterday, military forces arrested the Prime Minister of the FFC-led civilian wing of the government, Abdalla Hamdok, along with several other politicians. By afternoon, Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan declared a state of emergency, suspended the Constitutional Declaration that marked out the timeline for democratic transition and dissolved both the civilian government and the joint military-civilian Sovereign Council that oversaw it. Gen Al Burhan was chairman of the Sovereign Council prior to its dissolution, and has repeatedly said that he supports the country’s path to democracy.

By upending Sudan’s fragile transition plans, the military risks unravelling the progress made since the Al Bashir era in civil rights, the rule of law and international relations. The generals were reminded how much was at stake during a visit to Khartoum this week by Jeffrey Feltman, the US special envoy for the Horn of Africa, in which he told them that economic support from Washington would be “in question” if Sudan’s transition to civilian rule were put at risk.

Nonetheless, many in Sudan have called for drastic measures out of desperation. In recent months, the FFC-led government fractured, undermining the authority of Mr Hamdok as well as its credibility in a nation already in the throes of economic crisis. There was diminishing confidence in the administration’s ability to shepherd the country towards prosperity, let alone the level of stability.

While frustration is widespread, the appetite for an inclusive government remains strong. The streets of Khartoum saw thousands gather after the army’s takeover to decry any potential exclusion of civilians from what they hope will still be an interim administration. Violent clashes between supporters of both Mr Hamdok and the military could spill over into even more violence.

There is a very small window in which to instil confidence, create order and ensure a peaceful transition to competent governance. If Gen Al Burhan is unable to prove that the promises of the country’s revolution can be kept, the chaos the army intends to prevent may arise anyway.