Detained At The Coup Leader General's House, Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok Is Freed

PM Sudan Abdalla Hamdok. (Wikimedia Commons/International Hydropower Association)

JAKARTA - Sudan's ousted prime minister and his wife were allowed to return home on Tuesday after being detained when the military seized power in a coup, officials said.

The release of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and his wife follows international condemnation of the coup, as well as calls for the military to release all detained government officials, when General Abdel-Fattah Burhan seized power on Monday.

General Burhan earlier Tuesday said Hamdok was being held for his own safety and would be released. However, he warned other members of the dissolved government could be put on trial as protests against the coup continued in the streets.

PM Abdalla Hamdok and his wife were returned to their home in Khartoum's upscale Kafouri neighborhood, and the house is under "tight security," said a military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to notify the media. October 27 Press

The official did not say whether they were free to leave or call. An official in Hamdok's office and pro-democracy activist Nazim Siraj confirmed his return home.

On Tuesday, pro-democracy protesters blocked roads in the capital Khartoum with makeshift barricades and burned tires. Troops opened fire on an anti-coup rally the day before, killing four protesters, doctors said.

In his second public appearance since taking power, General Burhan said Tuesday the military was forced to step in to resolve the growing political crisis.

Illustration of an anti-coup demonstration in Sudan. (Wikimedia Commons/Abbasher)

"There are people who talk about discrimination against others, and that pushes this country to reach a civil war that will lead to the division of this country, tearing its unity, its structure and its society. This danger is in front of us," Burhan told a press conference. broadcast on television.

But the coup came less than a month before General Burhan was supposed to hand over leadership of the Sovereign Council that runs the country to civilians, a move that would reduce the military's power.

"All countries are at a stalemate due to political competition. Experience over the past two years has proven that the participation of political forces in the transition period is flawed and triggers disputes," he said.

Previously, PM Hamdok had been detained at Burhan's house, the general said and was in good health. But, of the many other senior government officials detained Monday, General Burhan accused some of having tried to instigate an uprising within the armed forces, saying they would be put on trial. Others found "not guilty" will be released, he added.

Separately, Mariam al-Mahdi, the foreign minister in the disbanded government, said Tuesday that she and other members of Hamdok's government remain the legitimate authorities in Sudan.

"We are still in our position. We reject coups and such unconstitutional acts," he told The Associated Press by telephone from his home in Khartoum. "We will continue our peaceful disobedience and resistance."

The Ministry of Culture and Information, which remains loyal to the ousted government, said in a Facebook post that Sudan's ambassadors in Belgium, Switzerland and France had defected.

Nureldin Satti, Sudan's envoy to the US, said he was working with the diplomats to "oppose the military coup in support of the heroic struggle of the Sudanese people" to achieve the goals of the uprising against al-Bashir. But he did not specify whether he had also defected.

Al-Mahdi, meanwhile, spoke with the wife of one of the detained officials, Cabinet Affairs Minister Khalid Omar, and said she was humiliated and mistreated during her arrest.

"They (military forces) took Khalid barefoot, only wearing his night clothes," he said.

For information, the UN Security Council will discuss the situation in Sudan, at a closed meeting Tuesday evening. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged world powers to come together to act decisively on the council, saying unity was needed to confront the recent "coup epidemic".