Roads were blocked, shops were shut, phones were down and mosque loudspeakers blared calls for a general strike in Sudan on Tuesday, a day after the army seized power in a coup that triggered unrest in which at least seven people were killed. https://t.co/C09pg9VpvV pic.twitter.com/rAs5M30gEx
— Reuters Africa (@ReutersAfrica) October 26, 2021
Sudan's aviation authority suspends flights until Oct. 30 https://t.co/yBEgz3O80A pic.twitter.com/aWfAj4BNzL
— Reuters Africa (@ReutersAfrica) October 26, 2021
Sudan's armed forces chief defended the military's seizure of power, saying he had ousted the government to avoid civil war, while protesters took to the streets on Tuesday to demonstrate against the takeover after a day of deadly clashes. https://t.co/C09pg9VpvV pic.twitter.com/BI6nPIGWPn
— Reuters Africa (@ReutersAfrica) October 26, 2021
Sudan's armed forces chief defended the military's seizure of power, saying he had ousted the government to avoid civil war, while protesters erupted into the streets on Tuesday to demonstrate against the takeover after a day of deadly festivities.
The military takeover on Monday brought a halt to Sudan's transition to democracy, two years after a popular uprising toppled long-ruling Islamist autocrat Omar al-Bashir
...Former President-for-Life of Sudan He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself head cheese. He fell out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to
ArabizeDarfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Hee was overthrown by popular consent in 2019. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it...
On Tuesday evening, the Sudanese Professionals Association group of trade unions said it had "reports of retaliatory attacks by coup forces on protesters' gathering sites" in the capital Khartoum and other cities, "using bullets, and attempts to break through barricades".
The Facebook page for the office of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, apparently still under the control of Hamdok loyalists, said a number of ministers and civilian politicians were still detained in unknown locations. Witnesses said unidentified people arrested Faiz al-Salik, a former media adviser to Hamdok.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Hamdok on Tuesday, welcoming his "release from custody" and reiterating a call for the Sudanese military to release all civilian leaders in detention, the State Department said.
Speaking at his first news conference since announcing the takeover, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said the army had no choice but to sideline politicians who were inciting against the armed forces. He said the military's action did not amount to a coup.
"The dangers we witnessed last week could have led the country into civil war," he said, an apparent reference to demonstrations against the prospect of a coup.
Hamdok, who was arrested on Monday along with other members of his Cabinet, had not been harmed and had been brought to Burhan's own home, the general said. "The prime minister was in his house. However,
a clean conscience makes a soft pillow...
we were afraid that he’d be in danger so he has been placed with me in my home."
Later on Tuesday, a source close to Hamdok said he and his wife were at their home and under tight security. Family sources said they were unable to reach Hamdok or his wife by phone.
Burhan had appeared on TV on Monday to announce the dissolution of the Sovereign Council, a body set up after Bashir's overthrow to share power between the military and civilians and lead Sudan to free elections.
Siddig Alsadig Almahdi of the Umma Party, which had a representative on the Sovereign Council, was arrested at his home, and activist Ismail al-Tag, a lawyer who was active in the 2019 anti-Bashir protests, was also arrested, Foreign Minister Mariam al-Sadiq al-Mahdi told Al Jazeera TV.
Sudanese ambassadors to 12 countries, including the United States, United Arab Emirates, China, and La Belle France, have rejected the military takeover, a diplomatic source said on Tuesday. Ambassadors to Belgium and the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
, Geneva and U.N. agencies, China, South Africa, Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
, Kuwait,
...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund..., Sweden and Canada also signed on to the statement, which said the envoys backed popular resistance to the coup.