Sudanese PM supporters plan major protest against military

Sudanese political forces are planning a major protest on Thursday as tensions between the country’s powerful military and its civilian prime minister continue to grow.

The  National Consensus Forces group of political parties and the Sudan Professionals’ Association, which played a key role in the revolution which toppled longtime dictator Omar Bashir in 2019, both called on their supporters to protest against what they described as the military’s growing interference in civilian government, according to the Arabi 21 news website.

Tensions between General Abdel Fattah Burhan, who leads the mixed military-civilian Sovereignty Council and acts as Sudan’s head of state and civilian Prime Minister Abdulla Hamdok grew after a failed military coup blamed on supporters of ex-president Bashir.

Burhan accused Hamdok’s government of failing to respond to the needs of the Sudanese people and tackle the country’s current economic crisis, which has seen inflation rise to triple figures, and later said that the government had to resign.

Hamdok has denied these allegations and his supporters have also said they will take part in Thursday’s protests.

Hamdok has described the impasse as Sudan’s “worst and most dangerous crisis” since Bashir was toppled in 2019.

Last week there were reports that officials from Hamdok’s government had been banned from travelling abroad.

On Twitter, Mohammed Hassan Taishi, a member of the Sovereignty Council supporting the protests, said that they would show “adherence to the principles of the December [2018] Revolution and the demands of the transition”.

#٢١اكتوبر ليست إختبارًا لإرادة الشعب فهذه معلومة، وإنما تأكيد الإلتزام بمبادئ ثورة ديسمبر ومطلوبات الانتقال وفي مقدمتها.
الإلتزام بالوثيقة الدستورية.
الربط ما بين بناء جيش وطني واحد والانتقال المدني الديمقراطي
وتعزيز سلطات الحكم المحلي.#الردة_مستحيلة

— محمد حسن التعايشي (@EltaishiHassan) October 19, 2021

Both the Sovereignty Council and Hamdok are in power on a transitional basis until 2022, when elections are planned.

Yasser Arman, a political advisor to Hamdok, said on Facebook that Thursday would be “a day of the December revolution which was launched against dismissed President Omar al-Bashir”.

The tensions between Hamdok and Burhan have divided Sudan’s political forces, with the Darfur-based Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) supporting Burhan and the military.

A sit-in protest in support of Burhan, calling on Hamdok to resign, has been held in Khartoum since Saturday.