Top Sudan general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan sees 'positive' signs coup sanctions will be lifted
KHARTOUM - Sudan's top general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said there are "positive indicators" that measures taken against his country following an October military takeover could soon be lifted.
Burhan - Sudan's de facto leader since the ouster of president Omar al-Bashir in April 2019 - removed the civilian government and declared a state of emergency on October 25, in a move that upended a two-year transition to civilian rule.
The power grab triggered a wave of international condemnation and several punitive measures, with the World Bank and the United States freezing aid, a blow to a country already mired in economic crisis.
The African Union has also suspended Sudan's membership over what it termed the "unconstitutional" takeover.
The military's move triggered mass anti-coup protests which were met by a bloody crackdown that killed at least 44 people, according to an independent union of medics.
"The international community including the African Union is watching what will happen in the coming days," Burhan said in an interview.
He added:
I believe there are positive indicators that things will return (to how they were) soon. The formation of a civilian government will put things back in order.
Burhan's interview with AFP was one of a series he gave to international media a day after UN chief Antonio Guterres called Sudan hostile to journalists in a report submitted to the Security Council.
On November 21, Burhan signed a deal to reinstate Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok who was ousted in the coup and kept for weeks under house arrest. The Burhan-Hamdok agreement was welcomed by the UN, the AU and Western Arab countries.
But critics have lambasted it as "whitewashing" and accused Hamdok of "betrayal," with pro-democracy activists vowing to maintain pressure on the military-civilian authority.
The top general has long insisted the military's move on October 25 "was not a coup" but a step "to rectify the transition."
Hamdok, who has been prime minister in the transitional government since 2019, has defended the deal, which he signed after he was released from effective house arrest.