Duet General Leads Sudanese Transitional Council, West: This Complicates Restoring Democracy

Illustration of military coup in Sudan. (Wikimedia Commons/Agence France-Presse)

JAKARTA - The United States and other Western powers expressed grave concern Friday over the appointment of a new Sudanese transitional council by the general who led last month's coup, saying it complicates efforts to restore a transition to democracy.

The United States, Britain, Norway, the European Union and Switzerland have also urged security services to respect the right to free speech "without fear of violence or detention", ahead of protests planned for Saturday by critics of the army move.

The Sudanese state of Khartoum said it would close all but three bridges across the Nile by midnight ahead of Saturday's demonstrations, Sudan TV reported, announcing what was a routine step to tighten security before demonstrations.

Sudan's army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan was sworn in on Thursday as head of the new Sovereign Council, which replaces the power-sharing body he dissolved last month in a takeover that thwarted Sudan's transition to civilian rule.

Meanwhile, the head of Sudan's powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Force, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, was sworn in as his deputy.

The army's move undermines its commitment to upholding transitional arrangements that require civilians on the council to be nominated by the Forces for Freedom and Change, a coalition that has shared power with the army since 2019, a joint statement by the United States and other countries said. said.

"This complicates efforts to get Sudan's democratic transition back on track", they said, adding the move "violates" the agreement governing the transition.

"We strongly urge against further escalating steps," the Western countries continued in their statement.

In Geneva, the UN's top human rights official Michelle Bachelet appointed Adama Dieng, a former UN adviser on genocide prevention, to monitor the evolving human rights situation in Sudan. His term will end when a civilian-led government is restored, the UN statement said.

Meanwhile, Abdalla Hamdok, the prime minister who was ousted in the October 25 coup, is still under house arrest. PM Hamdok has demanded the release of civilians and a return to the transition that began after the ouster of autocrat Omar al-Bashir in 2019.

Earlier, Volker Perthes, the UN special representative for Sudan, said the army's unilateral move on Thursday "made it increasingly difficult to return to the constitutional order".

Referring to the demonstrations planned for Saturday, Perthes also called on security forces to exercise complete restraint and respect the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression.

To note, security forces shot dead three people during the last major protest against the takeover on October 31. In total, 15 protesters have been killed since the coup.