Sudanese officials say coup attempt failed, army in control

By SAMY MAGDY

Sudanese authorities reported a coup effort Tuesday by a radical of soldiers but said the effort failed and the country’s ruling assembly and subject stay successful control.

The improvement underscored the fragility of Sudan’s way to democracy, much than 2 years aft the military’s overthrow of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir amid a nationalist uprising against his three-decade rule.

Sudan’s state-run tv called connected the nationalist “to counter” the coup effort but did not supply further details.

“All is nether control. The gyration is victorious,” Mohammed al-Fiky Suliman, a subordinate of the ruling military-civilian council, wrote connected Facebook. He besides called connected the Sudanese to support the transition.

A elder subject authoritative said an unspecified fig of troops from the armored corps were down the effort and that they tried to instrumentality implicit respective authorities institutions but were stopped.

He said the effort began astatine dawn and that a radical of soldiers had tried to prehend the subject office and the authorities tv presumption successful Khartoum’s duplicate metropolis of Omdurman to work a connection to citizens. The contented of the connection was not instantly clear.

The official, who spoke connected information of anonymity due to the fact that helium was not authorized to little the media, said implicit 3 twelve troops, including high-ranking officers, were arrested.

Brig. Al-Tahir Abu Haja, a media advisor for the military’s chief, said successful a televised connection that astatine slightest 21 suspected officers and immoderate troops were arrested and that authorities were searching for different suspects successful the failed attempt.

Footage circulated online showing troops and armored vehicles deployed to main roads and intersections successful the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. Security was besides boosted astatine the subject office and different authorities buildings successful the city.

Mohammed Hassan al-Taishi, a subordinate of the sovereign council, called the effort a “foolish and atrocious choice.”

“The enactment of subject coups has near america lone a failed and anemic country,” helium wrote connected Twitter. “The way towards antiauthoritarian modulation and securing the country’s governmental aboriginal and unity remains 1 option.”

Later, successful a connection work connected the state-run TV, Culture and Information Minister Hamza Baloul said information forces person arrested civilian and subject leaders down the coup attempt, and that they person been interrogated aft the subject managed to get the armored corps’ campy southbound of Khartoum nether control.

Baloul, who is besides the authorities spokesman, said authorities were chasing others “from the remnants” of al-Bashir’s authorities who were suspects successful orchestrated the attempted coup. He did not springiness further details.

Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok blamed remnants of al-Bashir’s authorities for the coup attempt, describing it arsenic an effort to undermine Sudan’s antiauthoritarian transition.

“What happened is an orchestrated coup by factions wrong and extracurricular the equipped forces,” helium said.

Hamdok, the civilian look of the Sudanese government, spoke during an exigency Cabinet gathering that was broadcast connected state-run TV, saying the effort “underscored the request for a complete, wide and transparent reappraisal of the transition.”

Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, caput of the Sovereign Council, and his lawman Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, who commands the almighty Rapid Support Forces, visited the armored corps campy Tuesday, according to video footage circulated by the council.

The coup attempt, had it succeeded, would person had “devastating consequences to the unity of the military, and the state arsenic well,” Burhan said.

Volker Perthes, the U.N. governmental envoy to Sudan, condemned the attempt. “The United Nations condemns immoderate effort — whether a coup oregon different — to undermine the antiauthoritarian governmental modulation process and the pluralistic quality of the authorities arsenic stipulated successful the law declaration,” helium said.

Sudan has been connected a fragile way to antiauthoritarian regularisation since the military’s ouster of al-Bashir successful April 2019, pursuing 4 months of wide protests. For decades, al-Bashir’s government, which was allied with the Islamists, had worked to impede ideologues wrong the subject and different information agencies. Al-Bashir himself had travel to powerfulness successful an Islamist-backed subject coup successful 1989.

The state is present ruled by a associated civilian and subject government. The transitional authorities has been nether expanding unit to extremity wars with rebel groups arsenic it seeks to rehabilitate the country’s battered economy, pull much-needed overseas assistance and present the ideology it promised.

The U.S. authorities condemned the coup effort successful a connection from Samantha Powers, the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development who precocious visited Sudan.

“The United States remains committed — alongside allies successful the portion and astir the satellite — to supporting the continuation of Sudan’s historical modulation toward democracy, and to moving with actors crossed Sudan to beforehand critically needed advancement connected economic, judicial, governance, quality rights, and information reforms,” Power said.