Sudan in emergency state after military takeover

KHARTOUM, Sudan－The Chairman of Sudan's Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Monday declared a state of emergency across the country, and dissolved the transitional sovereign council and the government.

The top general's decision was made hours after acting Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, members of the Transitional Sovereignty Council's civilian component and several ministers were arrested by joint military forces in dawn raids.

The internet was cut across the country, media reported, as dozens of demonstrators gathered on the streets of the capital Khartoum to protest the arrests, setting fire to tires.

Khartoum airport was shut and international flights were suspended, media reported.

The Sudanese Information Ministry said joint military forces were behind the detentions. A Reuters witness saw joint forces from the military and the powerful, paramilitary Rapid Support Forces stationed in the streets in Khartoum.

Sudan has been on edge since a failed coup plot last month unleashed bitter recriminations between military and civilian groups meant to be sharing power following the 2019 ouster of former leader Omar al-Bashir.

One of the leading forces behind the 2019 revolt, the Sudanese Professionals Association, denounced on Monday what it called a "coup d'etat" and called for a campaign of "civil disobedience".

The news came just two days after a Sudan faction calling for a transfer of power to civilian rule warned of a "creeping coup", during a news conference that an unidentified mob attack had sought to prevent.

Since August 2019, the country has been led by a civilian-military administration tasked with overseeing the transition to full civilian governance.

But the main civilian bloc－the Forces for Freedom and Change, or FFC, which led the anti-Bashir protests in 2019－has splintered into two opposing factions.

"The crisis at hand is engineered－and is in the shape of a creeping coup," mainstream FFC leader Yasser Arman said on Saturday.

Hamdok is an economist and former senior United Nations official who was appointed as a technocratic prime minister in 2019.

The UN described the detentions as "unacceptable".

"I am calling on security forces to immediately release all those unlawfully detained or put under house arrest," said Volker Perthes, chief of the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan.

The European Union and the Arab League also expressed "concern".

Agencies - Xinhua