NEW YORK, USA
The World Bank halted disbursements for operations in Sudan on Wednesday in response to the military’s seizure of power from a transitional government, while state oil company workers, doctors and pilots joined civilian groups opposing the takeover.
Thousands of people have taken to the streets since
Monday’s coup led by armed forces chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and
several have been killed in clashes with security forces.
Burhan has dismissed the joint civilian-military
council set up to steer the country to democratic elections following the
overthrow of autocrat Omar al-Bashir in a popular uprising in April 2019.
He said he acted to stop the country slipping into
civil war, but the World Bank decision to pause payments and stop processing
new operations is a setback to his plans for one of Africa’s poorest countries.
After isolation from the international financing
system across three decades of Bashir’s rule, Sudan achieved full re-engagement
with the bank in March and gained access to $2 billion in financing.
“I am greatly concerned by recent events in Sudan,
and I fear the dramatic impact this can have on the country’s social and
economic recovery and development,” World Bank President David Malpass said in
a statement from Washington.
Abdalla Hamdok, prime minister in the deposed
transitional government, had touted World Bank re-engagement as a major
accomplishment and was depending on the funding for several large development
projects.
The government had instituted harsh economic
reforms that succeeded in achieving rapid arrears clearance and debt relief and
renewed financing from the World Bank and IMF.
An IMF spokeswoman said the fund was monitoring
developments but it was “premature” to comment.
Scattered protests took place in Khartoum on
Wednesday and intensified at night across the capital, although no new
bloodshed was reported.
In one Khartoum neighbourhood, a Reuters journalist
saw soldiers and armed people in civilian clothes removing barricades erected
by protesters. A few hundred metres away, youths built barricades again minutes
later.
“We want civilian rule. We won’t get tired,” one
said.
In Bahri across the river, witnesses told Reuters
protesters were met with tear gas and heard gunshots on Wednesday evening as
protesters came out across the capital’s three cities.
In the northeastern city of Atbara, protesters
marched and chanted, “Down with the military regime”.
Neighbourhood committees announced plans for
protests leading to what they said would be a “march of millions” on Saturday.
Workers at state oil company Sudapet said they were
joining the civil disobedience campaign to back the stalled democratic
transition.
Pilots from national carrier Sudan Airways have
gone on strike, their union said, as have pilots from local carriers Badr and
Tarco Airlines. Central Bank employees have also stopped work in a further
setback for the functioning of the economy.
Doctors belonging to the Unified Doctors’ Office group
of unions also said they were striking. The doctors were one of the driving
forces behind the uprising that brought down Bashir.
Power-sharing between the military and civilians
had been increasingly strained over several issues, including whether to send
Bashir and others to the International Criminal Court, where they are wanted
for alleged atrocities in Darfur. Military commanders now leading Sudan also
served in Darfur.
Speaking on Tuesday at his first news conference
since announcing the takeover, Burhan said the army had no choice but to
sideline politicians who he said were inciting people against the armed forces.
U.N. Special Representative Volker Perthes met
Burhan on Wednesday and told him the United Nations wants to see a return to
the transition process and the immediate release of all those arbitrarily
detained, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.
Perthes also met Hamdok at his residence, where he
remains under guard, Dujarric said. Hamdok was detained on Monday.
The European Union’s Foreign Relations Commissioner
Josep Borrell wrote on Twitter that he had spoken with Hamdok and expressed
support for a civilian-led transition.
Events in Sudan – Africa’s third largest country –
mirror those in several other Arab states where the military has tightened its
grip following uprisings.
Willow Berridge, a Sudan expert at Newcastle
University, said it would be difficult for Burhan and the army to suppress
street mobilisations against the takeover because of the presence of resistance
committees in many neighbourhoods.
“My greatest fear is that he will fall back even
further on the only legitimacy he can depend on – violence. It is a very
serious risk,” Berridge said.
Burhan has close ties to states that worked to roll
back Islamist influence and contain the impact of the 2011 Arab Spring
uprisings, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
While Western countries have denounced the takeover
in Sudan – which has a history of military coups – those Arab countries have
mainly called for all parties to show restraint.
Burhan met with Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to
Khartoum Ali Bin Hasan Jaafar on Wednesday to discuss efforts to resolve the
situation through dialog “among all relevant parties”, Sudan’s armed forces
Facebook page said.
Burhan has also been at the forefront of Sudan’s
steps to normalise relations with Israel.
Sharon Bar-Li, deputy director-general for Africa
at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said on Tuesday it was still too early to know
if developments in Sudan will have consequences for the normalisation.
The African Union said it has suspended Sudan’s
participation in all activities until the restoration of the civilian-led
authority.
“Right now, because the military now has power, they have halted the path and taken us back to square one, but that doesn’t work for us,” said Sudanese citizen Mohamed Ali. - Reuters
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