KHARTOUM, Sudan
Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok was brought home late Tuesday, his office said, after a day of intense international pressure following his removal in a military coup.
Hamdok was "under
close surveillance" while other ministers and civilian leaders remained
under arrest, his office added, after the army dissolved Sudan's institutions
on Monday.
Earlier in the day, the
United States had said it would suspend aid over the coup and the EU had
threatened to do the same.
Meanwhile UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres demanded Hamdok "be released immediately"
ahead of an emergency Security Council meeting that began at 2000 GMT.
The talks among the top
UN powers could produce a joint text condemning the putsch later Tuesday or on
Wednesday, a diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity said.
The coup comes just
over two years into a delicate power-sharing arrangement between the military
and civilians after the army's ousting during enormous street protests in April
2019 of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir.
Top General Abdel
Fattah al-Burhan had earlier vouched for Hamdok's "good health",
while a military source who requested anonymity said Hamdok had been escorted
home, with "security measures" erected "around the
perimeter".
Angry citizens stood
their ground on barricaded streets where tyres burned, chanting "No to
military rule", the day after four people were shot dead by security
forces, according to a doctors' group.
And violence against
protesters mounted.
"Frenzied
putschist forces are attacking protest gatherings in separate parts
nationwide," said the Sudanese Professionals Association, an umbrella of
unions which were instrumental in the late 2018-2019 anti-Bashir protests.
It said the
"vengeful" attacks followed Hamdok's release.
Witnesses in the east
Khartoum district of Burri said security forces fired tear gas at protesters
blocking a main road in opposition to the coup.
Internationally,
Burhan's declaration of a state of emergency and dissolution of government
provoked an immediate backlash.
Washington, a key
backer of the transition, strongly condemned the military's actions and
suspended hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, before the European Union
late Tuesday threatened "serious consequences" for Sudan's rulers,
including suspension of financial support.
Sudan risks "going
back into a period of being shunned by the rest of the world" and losing
badly needed financial aid, said Alex de Waal, a veteran expert on Sudan who is
executive director of the World Peace Foundation.
Hamdok's government
earlier this year unlocked international financial assistance, after it was
frozen for years under Bashir.
On Tuesday the country
was already physically cut off. The aviation authority said all flights have
been suspended until October 30.
Sudan's ambassadors to
Belgium, France and Switzerland on Tuesday made clear their allegiance to the
civilian leaders, declaring their diplomatic missions as "embassies of the
Sudanese people and their revolution", according to the Information Ministry.
Shops around the
capital were shuttered following calls for a campaign of civil disobedience.
"We will only
leave when the civilian government is restored," said 32-year-old
demonstrator Hisham al-Amin.
It was the latest coup
in one of the world's most underdeveloped countries, which has experienced only
rare democratic interludes since independence in 1956.
Analysts said the
generals are trying to maintain their historic control.
US Secretary of State
Antony Blinken spoke with Hamdok Tuesday, the State Department said, welcoming
the prime minister's release from custody but expressing "deep
concern" about the takeover and reiterating US support for a civilian-led
democracy.
Blinken called for the
military to release all civilian leaders and to use restraint in dealing with
protesters, State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
A troika of countries
previously involved in mediating Sudanese conflicts -- the US, UK and Norway --
said "the actions of the military represent a betrayal of the
revolution".
The African Union and
Arab League also expressed concern.
Bashir, who ruled Sudan
with an iron fist for three decades, is in jail in Khartoum following a
corruption conviction.
He is wanted by the
International Criminal Court on charges of genocide over the civil war in
Darfur.
The 2019 power-sharing
deal after his fall saw Sudan ruled by a Sovereign Council of civilian and
military representatives tasked with overseeing a transition to a full civilian
government.
In recent weeks, the
cracks in the leadership had grown wide. The civilian movement that spearheaded
demonstrations against Bashir split in two and the splinter group sided with
the military.
Tensions had long
simmered within that movement, known as the Forces for Freedom and Change, but
divisions ratcheted up after what the government said was a failed coup on
September 21 this year.
Burhan had dismissed as
"slander" suggestions that the army was involved in that manoeuvre.
Analysts have expressed
concern that resistance to the coup could be brutally repressed. - AFP
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