In Sudan, ex-official detained ahead of anti-coup protests

Sudanese demonstrators march during anti-government protests in Khartoum in January 2019.(Reuters: Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah)

February 14, 2022 - 2:13 AM

CAIRO (AP) — Sudan’s military authorities have again arrested a former senior government official, his party said, as pro-democracy groups on Monday readied more protests against a military coup that plunged the country into turmoil.

The Unionist Alliance party said Mohammed al-Faki Suliman, former member of the ruling Sovereign Council, was detained Sunday in the capital of Khartoum. It said security forces stopped his vehicle as he was heading from his home to the party’s headquarters.

Suliman was also deputy head of a government-run agency tasked with dismantling the legacy of former autocratic President Omar al-Bashir’s regime.

Also Sunday, security forces arrested two former members of the agency, according to a security official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The agency is known as The Committee to Dismantle the Regime of June 30, 1989, in reference the Islamist-backed military coup that brought al-Bashir to power.

The official said the three were taken to the Souba prison in Khartoum. He said they were facing charges related to the work of the agency, which the military disbanded following the Oct. 25 takeover.

Suliman had been detained in the coup and was released a month later as part of a deal between the military and then-Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.

He was the latest of a series of former government officials and activists to be detained in recent weeks^[1] as military rulers stepped up crackdown on anti-coup groups.

Last week, authorities rearrested Khalid Omar, a minister in the ousted transitional government. Also arrested Wagdi Saleh, another committee member.

The detentions have intensified in recent weeks as Sudan plunged into further turmoil with near-daily street protests since the coup.

The takeover upended Sudan’s transition to democratic rule after three decades of international isolation under al-Bashir, who was removed from power in 2019 after a popular uprising.

Protest groups have called for street demonstrations Monday in Khartoum and elsewhere in the country, demanding the establishment of a fully civilian government to lead the transition.

Security authorities in the capital have called on protesters to assemble in public squares to avoid more clashes with forces. A deadly crackdown on protesters killed around 80 people and wounded 2,200 others since the coup, according to a Sudanese medical group.

Sudan has been politically paralyzed since the coup. The turmoil has worsened since the resignation last month of Hamdok, who complained of failure to reach a compromise between the generals and the pro-democracy movement.

African Union Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat, meanwhile, met Sunday with Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the Sovereign Council, in Khartoum as part of international efforts to find a way out of the crisis, the council said.

Mahamat also met with the Sudanese Professionals Association, which reiterated its demand of the removal of military from power, the association said.

The generals, however, said they will hand over power only to an elected administration. They say elections will take place in July 2023, as planned in a constitutional document governing the transitional period.

References

1. ^{^} a series of former government officials and activists to be detained in recent weeks (apnews.com)
2. ^{^} a series of former government officials and activists to be detained in recent weeks (apnews.com)