Sudan foils coup attempt by Al Bashir loyalists and arrests masterminds

Sudan said on Tuesday had it thwarted an attempted coup by army officers and civilians loyal to the regime of ousted dictator Omar Al Bashir.

Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said the aim of the attempted takeover was to derail the country’s transition to democratic rule two years after Al Bashir was removed by the military in the face of mass street protest.

“But our resolve was stronger and going back is impossible,” he told the nation in a televised address.

Earlier, Information Minister Hamza Baloul sought to reassure the Afro-Arab nation that all was in hand.

“We assure the Sudanese people that the situation is fully under control,” Mr Baloul said in a live broadcast on state television. “The civilian and military leaders of the coup attempt have been arrested.”

He said army troops “liquidated the last coup pockets” in Al Shagarah barracks, a sprawling military complex on the outskirts of Khartoum.

“The relevant authorities are continuing to pursue the remnants of the vanquished regime who took part in the failed coup,” he added, without giving more details.

Mr Hamdok’s later comments came during a joint meeting of his government and the Forces of Freedom and Change, a pro-democracy alliance which mobilised the street protests that paved the way for Al Bashir’s ousting by the military in April 2019.

“The unity of the forces of freedom, revolution and change is both the guarantee for and immunity of a civilian and democratic transition; and realising the objectives of the revolution,” he said.

“The attempted coup requires a full and transparent review of the transition to arrive at a partnership based on the slogans and the principles of the revolution as well as a road that leads only to a democratic and civilian transition.”

Early on Tuesday, state radio and television interrupted usual programming to broadcast patriotic songs as hundreds of troops backed by tanks were deployed in the streets of the capital.
The plotters failed in their attempt to take over the state media building, a military source told The National.

They said a general in the armoured corps had planned to enter the state media building to broadcast an announcement of a coup but was prevented by other elements in the military.

The source said the incident came after months of rumours about a planned coup.

“Such rumours are being recycled every now and then to destabilise the state building,” the source said.

The building, in Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman, has routinely been the first target of the two dozen or more coup attempts since independence in 1956.

Troops and tanks briefly closed the White Nile bridge linking Khartoum and Omdurman, where the headquarters of the army’s armoured corps is located.

Military policemen were deployed across the city, but life in Khartoum appeared mostly normal by midmorning, with cars and pedestrians plying the streets.

A leading army general and a Cabinet minister also blamed the coup attempt on loyalists of Al Bashir, whose 29-year regime was ousted by the military in April 2019.

A well-placed army general blamed Al Bashir loyalists in a telephone interview with The National. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Sovereign council spokesman Mohammed El Faky Suleiman urged the Sudanese to “rise up and defend your country and the transition” in a Facebook post.
Sudan’s military ousted and detained Al Bashir after months of street protests against his Islamist rule.

The pro-democracy activists behind the protests have repeatedly complained that not enough was being done to purge his loyalists from the military, police and security agencies. Many of the military’s top brass and mid-ranking officers are known to be among Al Bashir’s loyalists.

Mr Hamdok’s civilian-led government made the blunder of not having the upper hand in restructuring the military and security services after Al Bashir’s ousting, Samir Makeen, the deputy head of the National Commission of Human Rights, told The National.

“The constitution does not give this authority to the civilian government and the military has been dragging its feet over doing the necessary purges,” Mr Makeen, who is also a prominent lawyer and rights activist, said over the phone from Khartoum.

Mr Makeen resigned on September 12 to protest against what he described as the commission’s failure to make any tangible progress on human rights over the past two years. The commission has yet to accept his resignation.

The army ranks were filled with the remnants of the ousted regime of Al Bashir, Mr Makeen said.

“We are not talking here about the rank and file,” he said. “We are talking about senior officers who call the shots.”
Minister of Religious Affairs Nasredeen Mofreh Ahmed condemned what he described as an attack on the nation’s fledgling democracy.

“The enemies of the country and the glorious revolution are trying to abort this great national project,” Mr Ahmed said in a statement. “But we will, just as the revolutionary forces will, remain alive; and the attempts of the corrupt remnants of the vanished regime will be to no avail.”

The coup attempt came as the government grapples with a surge in street crime in Khartoum, which has prompted the authorities to send thousands of police and troops on to the streets.

The crime wave has compounded the difficulties of most Sudanese, who are struggling to cope with rising prices.

Mr Hamdok blamed Al Bashir loyalists for the sharp rise in crime as well as acts of sabotage in the capital and elsewhere, saying they were part of the preparations for Tuesday’s foiled coup.

The military and civilian components of Sudan’s transitional administration have also been at loggerheads. Each accuses the other of breaches of authority and being the cause of some of the country’s woes.

Mr Hamdok’s mention of the need to establish a new basis of “partnership” appeared to be a reference to the differences between the military and the government. (NEMA)