FBI TO HELP PROBE SUDAN PM's ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

KHARTOUM, Sudan

American investigators will help Sudan with enquiries into a failed assassination attempt against Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, the Sudanese culture and information minister said Wednesday.

Security personnel stand near a car damaged after an explosion targeting the motorcade of Sudan's Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok near the Kober Bridge in Khartoum, Sudan March 9

A Federal Bureau of Investigation team "arrived this morning and will join Sudanese investigators", Faisal Mohammed Saleh told journalists.

Sudan's post-uprising leader Hamdok escaped unharmed Monday after an assassination attempt using explosives targeted his convoy in the capital Khartoum.

The American investigators will bring relevant "expertise and techniques for this kind of case," Saleh said.

The US team comprises three people, local media cited the interior ministry as saying.

Sudan's security and defence council met Monday evening and called for foreign assistance.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack.

Sudanese authorities have made several arrests, including of foreigners, Saleh said, without giving further detail.

On Tuesday, the interior ministry said the blast was caused by an improvised explosive device placed on the route taken by Hamdok's convoy.

After the fall of longstanding ruler Omar al-Bashir in April 2019, Hamdok, a seasoned economist, took the reins of a transitional government last August.

He heads a sovereign council composed of civilian and military figures, tasked with overseeing Sudan's transition to civilian rule over three years, with the eventual goal of free elections.