General’s deal with freed premier restores civilian rule in Sudan

NEARLY a month after Sudan’s top general ousted the prime minister, a breakthrough deal was signed yesterday to reverse the military takeover that prompted international condemnation and mass protests.

Anger flared, however, as thousands rallied again in the country and clashed with police, shouting “No to military power” and demanding that the armed forces fully withdraw from government.

Gen Abdel Fattah al-burhan appeared at the presidential palace in Khartoum for a televised ceremony with a haggard-looking premier Abdalla Hamdok, just freed from weeks of house arrest.

The 14-point deal they signed restores the transition to civilian rule derailed by the Oct 25 putsch, which threw the poverty-stricken north-east African country into renewed turmoil.

The agreement, after crisis talks involving Sudanese and outside players, declared that Gen Burhan’s decision “to relieve the transitional prime minister of his duties is cancelled” and that all political detainees be freed.

Mr Hamdok praised the virtues of the people-power “revolution” that brought him to government and declared the priority was to “stop the bloodshed”.

“He was patient with us until we reached this moment,” Gen Burhan said before posing for photos with the reinstated premier and his own deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

The United Nations welcomed the deal but stressed the “need to protect the constitutional order to safeguard the basic freedoms of political action, freedom of speech and peaceful assembly”.

Outside the palace, and in other cities, thousands rallied. In the capital they were met by security forces who fired tear gas. A 16-year-old boy was shot in the head and fatally wounded, increasing the death toll to 41 since the coup began.

Police deny firing live ammunition and insist they have used “minimum force” to disperse the demonstrators.