Sudan: Hamdok warns he’ll step down if deal with army is not respected

Sudan’s reinstated Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok yesterday warned that he would step down if the army did not respect the deal agreed with him, Arabi Post reported.

On 21 November Hamdok reached a deal with the army in which he returned to the position of prime minister weeks after he was ousted by the country’s military.

The 14-point deal includeed a pledge from the military that all political detainees would be released. It also authorises Hamdok to form a technocrat government.

Arabi Post said that the coup carried out by the Sudanese Army Chief Abdul Fattah Al-Burhan ended the power sharing agreement which was reached between the army and the forces which helped oust former President Omar Al-Bashir in 2019.

Al-Burhan has insisted his more recent move against Hamdok was not a coup, describing it as an attempt to “rectify the transition.”

Yesterday, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Khartoum, reiterating their rejection of the deals and talks with the army.

The Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change, the group that spearheaded the uprising that culminated in Al-Bashir’s ouster, said that the deal with Hamdok gives the army chief power to remain head of the Sovereign Council.

During anti-coup protests since Hamdok’s removal from power, 43 protesters have been killed. Hamdok said that he accepted the deal in order to stop the bloodshed.

Hamdok yesterday issued a decree to assign new deputy ministers to replace most of the ministers assigned by the army.

Dozens of detainees were also reported released, but, according to Arabi Post, lawyers said many more remain in detention.

READ: Sudan army uses tear gas to disperse anti-coup protests