Anti-coup Protests Lead To Fatalities: Sudanese Military Blocks Roads, Telephone Lines Shut Down

Sudanese military commander General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. (Wikimedia Commons/Kremlin.ru)

JAKARTA - Streets were blocked, shops closed, telephones switched off and mosque loudspeakers called for a general strike in Sudan on Tuesday, a day after the army seized power in a coup that sparked unrest, leaving at least seven people dead.

Life has stalled in the capital Khartoum and its sister city Omdurman across the Nile, with roads blocked either by the army or by barricades erected by protesters.

The night appeared to have passed relatively calmly after Monday's riots, as protesters took to the streets after the army arrested Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and other senior officials in the cabinet. A health ministry official said seven people were killed in clashes between protesters and security forces.

The leader of the takeover, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, dissolved the civil-military Sovereignty Council set up to guide Sudan to democracy, following the ouster of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in a popular uprising two years ago.

General Burhan declared a state of emergency, saying the armed forces needed to protect safety and security. He promised to hold elections in July 2023 and hand them over to the then-elected civilian government. On Tuesday, he dissolved the committee governing the union, Arab news channels reported.

Meanwhile, Sudan's Ministry of Information, which is still loyal to PM Hamdok, said on its Facebook page, the transitional constitution only gives the prime minister the right to declare a state of emergency and military action is a crime. PM Hamdok is still the legitimate transitional authority, he said.

The main road and bridge between Khartoum and Omdurman were closed to vehicles by the military. Banks and ATMs were closed, and mobile phone apps widely used for remittances were inaccessible.

Several bakeries are open in Omdurman, but people are queuing for several hours, longer than usual.

"We are paying the price for this crisis," said a man in his 50s who was looking for medicine at one of the nearly out-of-stock pharmacies said angrily, citing Reuters October 26.

"We can't work, we can't find bread, no service, no money".

In the western city of El Geneina, resident Adam Haroun said there was total civil disobedience, with schools, shops and gas stations closed.

Meanwhile, the Sudanese Professionals Association, the coalition of activists that played a major role in the uprising that toppled Bashir, has called for a strike.

PM Hamdok, an economist and former senior UN official, was detained and taken to an undisclosed location on Monday after refusing to issue a statement in support of the armed forces' coup, the information ministry said. Troops also arrested other civilian government figures and members of the Sovereign Council.

Separately, Western governments condemned the coup, called for the release of detained civilian leaders and threatened to cut off aid, which Sudan needs to recover from the economic crisis.

The United States has said it will immediately stop sending US$700 million worth of aid in emergency support.

To note, Sudan has been ruled for most of its post-colonial history by military leaders who seized power in a coup. It has become a pariah for the West and was on the US terrorism blacklist under Omar Bashir, who hosted Osama bin Laden in the 1990s and is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for war crimes.

Since Bashir's ouster, the military has shared power uncomfortably with civilians under a transition meant to lead to general elections in 2023. The country has been in tension since last month when a failed coup plot, which blamed Bashir's supporters, released accusations between the military and civilians.