SUDAN WATCH: Hamdock

Showing posts with label Hamdock. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Sudan: Hamdok & US support for civilian initiatives

THIS tweet by US's Molly Phee (@AsstSecStateAF) dated 10 July 2023 is heartwarming to see. Sudanese PM Hamdok was and still is the best. It was sad to see him treated so badly. Let's hope we hear more of him soon and that he receives full support from his fellow Sudanese. The tweet says:

"Proud to meet with former Sudanese PM Hamdok today to discuss U.S. support for civilian initiatives to chart a new process to establish a civilian-led democratic transition. Agreed on the need to support an inclusive and transparent process that represents the full diversity of the Sudanese people, including civil society, Resistance Committees, the peripheries, youth and women."

Proud to meet with former Sudanese PM Hamdok today to discuss U.S. support for civilian initiatives to chart a new process to establish a civilian-led democratic transition. Agreed on the need to support an inclusive and transparent process that represents the full diversity of… pic.twitter.com/gVDxBGtabd
— Bureau of African Affairs (@AsstSecStateAF) July 10, 2023

The tweet is timestamped 9:03 10 July 2023.

Note, Dr Hamdok was born in South Kordofan, Sudan and currently resides in the UAE. He was educated at the University of Khartoum in Sudan and the University of Manchester in England, UK. He married fellow economist Muna Abdalla in 1993 in south Manchester. They have two sons; one studying at Exeter University in England, UK as of 2019 and one who graduated from a university in the US in the late 2010s. [Source: Wikipedia]

[Ends]

Monday, October 25, 2021

Military Coup In Sudan - PM Hamdok Arrested

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: News reports from around the world are on the internet regarding a military coup in Sudan today. The first report I saw online this morning was published at 5:03 am GMT UK by BBC News Africa Live entitled 'Soldiers besiege Sudan PM's house' (see copy here below). I then re-visited BBC News UK online and saw stomach churning confirmation that Sudan's Prime Minister Hamdok and his cabinet have been arrested and the government dissolved.

I'll spend today reading as many news reports as I can in order to compile a list for posting here at a later date. This sad news has brought tears to my eyes. As if the world isn't already in a bad enough state, this terrible news adds heavily to its sadness and woes. I fear that getting humanitarian aid into countries such as Sudan could be delayed due to a recent disruption in the global supply chain amidst a worldwide coronavirus pandemic.

All I can think of to say right now is God bless and help the people of Sudan and South Sudan, keep them and PM Hamdok and his family and colleagues safe and well. You will all be in my nightly prayers. Love and Peace. x

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Copy of news report at LIVE Africa news updates

By BBC World Service Africa

Dated Monday 25 October 2021, 5:03 am GMT UK

Title: Soldiers besiege Sudan PM's house - reports

Image credit: AFP Copyright AFP. The Sudan PM is reportedly under house arrest (BBC)

Reports are coming in of a possible coup attempt in Sudan.

Local media say unidentified military forces have besieged the home of Prime Minister, Abdallah Hamdok.

Al Hadath TV reports that troops have arrested four cabinet ministers and one civilian member of the transitional government - the Sovereign Council - citing unidentified sources.

Citing family sources, the Reuters news agency also reports that solders stormed the home of the prime minister's media adviser and arrested him early on Monday.

The Sudanese professionals association has called on the people to take to the streets to resist any military coup.
It comes amid reports of an interruption in internet services.

On Thursday, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in the capital, Khartoum, to show solidarity with the transitional government.
Some sections of the military and their supporters have been seeking to disband it.

Sudan has previously had 15 coups - five of them successful. The most recent was in 2019 with the removal of Omar al-Bashir as head of state following months of popular protest.

Source - BBC World Service Africa Live Reporting:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-africa-47639452

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Copy of news report at LIVE Africa news updates

By BBC World Service Africa

Dated Monday 25 October 2021, 11:22 am GMT UK

BREAKING

Sovereign Council dissolved - Burhan

Gen Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan - the head of Sudan's Sovereign Council - just gave a speech announcing a state of emergency. He also dissolved the Sovereign Council that was overseeing the transition to civilian rule, as well as the dissolution of cabinet.

Source - BBC World Service Africa Live Reporting:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-africa-47639452

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Copy of BBC News co uk report online

Dated Monday 25 October 2021, 1pm GMT UK

Title: Sudan coup: A really simple guide

The coup taking place in Sudan, where the prime minister and his cabinet have been arrested and the government dissolved, is the latest crisis in a turbulent period for the country.

On top of the political tensions, Sudan's economy has been in a deep economic crisis, with high inflation and shortages of food, fuel and medicine.

The coup has alarmed many international powers who have only recently been forging relations with Sudan after years of isolation.

Here is what you need to know.

What's the background to the coup?

Military and civilian leaders have been sharing power since August 2019 after Sudan's long-term authoritarian President Omar al-Bashir was overthrown.

Mr al-Bashir was toppled by the military but mass street demonstrations demanding civilian rule forced the military to negotiate a plan aimed at moving to a democratic government.

The country is now supposed to be in that transition with civilians and military leaders running the country together on a joint committee known as the Sovereign Council.

But the two groups have been publicly at odds.

What's behind the tension?

Military leaders in the transitional government have demanded reforms from their civilian counterparts and called for the cabinet to be replaced. This was dismissed as a power grab by civilian leaders.

There have been multiple failed coups since 2019, the most recent of these was just last month.

The top civilian figure, Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, blamed Bashir loyalists - many of whom are said to be embedded in the military, security services and other state institutions.

And in recent weeks the country has seen demonstrations calling for the army to take power as well as large protests backing the prime minister.

The pro-military protesters have accused the government of failing to revive the country's fortunes.

Mr Hamdok's moves to reform the economy - including slashing fuel subsidies - have been unpopular with some.

What is happening now?

The head of Sudan's Sovereign Council has given a speech announcing a state of emergency.

He also dissolved the Sovereign Council that was overseeing the transition to civilian rule, as well as the dissolution of cabinet.

Gen Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan also said elections would be held in July 2023.

Prime Minister Hamdok was reportedly detained by soldiers earlier in the day, along with several other ministers. It also appears that the state TV and radio headquarters have been taken over by the military.

The internet has also been restricted.

What might happen next?

According to information ministry's Facebook page, the prime minister had called on people to come out in support of the government.

Pictures and reports coming out of the capital, Khartoum, suggest that there are demonstrators out in the city.

The military have also been deployed to restrict movements.

In June 2019, before the democratic transition was agreed, soldiers opened fire on protesters in Khartoum killing at least 87 people.

Memories of that massacre will be playing on the minds of people as the two sides confront each other.

Source - BBC News: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-59035053

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Wednesday, March 04, 2020

Sudan: Scepticism whether Bashir will be given to ICC (David Pilling)

There is scepticism about whether military leaders will really give Omar al-Bashir up to the courts
Seeing Omar al-Bashir on trial in The Hague would be a signal that the revolution can endure
Mr Hamdok lacks the two things he needs most: power and money. He is beholden to the military men he is quietly trying to nudge aside, who decide what finance he can access and what laws he can pass

From The Financial Times - www.ft.com

Opinion Editorial by DAVID PILLING

Published Wednesday 12 February 2020

Title: Sudan’s revolutionaries need help to avoid the ‘Myanmar trap’

The peaceful revolution that overthrew Sudan’s dictator Omar al-Bashir last April was one of the most uplifting if under-appreciated events of 2019. This year, it has all but slipped off the international radar screen.

At a time when democracy is under pressure globally, millions of ordinary Sudanese took to the streets for months to demand the end of a dictatorship that had ground their faces in the dirt for 30 years. This was the purest expression of a popular pushback against autocracy that has shaken leaderships around the world, from Algeria to Hong Kong. Now its revolution is under threat.

The country is bogged down in a perilously long three-and-half-year transition to full democracy. People are frustrated with long fuel lines and a dwindling economy. The only things upwardly mobile in Sudan these days are prices. With Mr Bashir gone, the one element that united a cacophony of opposition voices and rebel groups has disappeared into a small cell.

Worse, civilian leaders now find themselves sharing power with the very military men they rose up against. Some are calling it the “Myanmar trap”, a reference to another revolution that ousted one military regime only to see it replaced by another — albeit one camouflaged by the once-flattering form of Aung San Suu Kyi. The comparison with Egypt is also apt. There, people toppled one autocracy only to see another rise up in its place.

In Sudan, the civilian nominally in charge is not a world-famous former political prisoner but rather a quiet technocrat. Abdalla Hamdok, 64, commands respect on the Sudanese streets, where he is seen as an honest broker. But that support could quickly trickle away.

Mr Hamdok lacks the two things he needs most: power and money. He is beholden to the military men he is quietly trying to nudge aside, who decide what finance he can access and what laws he can pass.

Despite these constraints, some things have been achieved. Mr Hamdok managed to repeal a draconian public order law that controlled how women dressed and behaved in public. Many Islamists have been purged.

This week, there was another good sign. The government intimated it might allow Mr Bashir to stand trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur, levelled by the International Criminal Court. There is rightly scepticism about whether military leaders — implicated in the same events — will really give him up.

It is possible that Mr Bashir’s trial will take place in Khartoum, and not The Hague, in some sort of compromise. Even then, the risk for Sudan’s military leaders is that his testimony could expose their own complicity.

If Mr Bashir does stand trial, it would send a powerful signal that — against all the odds — Sudan’s revolution really can just about hold. Justice for Mr Bashir could be part of a broader effort at international re-engagement aimed at removing Sudan from Washington’s list of state sponsors of terrorism. Unless progress is made on that, Khartoum has no hope of writing off $60bn in past debts, or of unlocking essential new finance.

This month, General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the 11-member sovereign council that runs the country, set tongues wagging by holding a previously unthinkable meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister. If that was a sign Sudan is prepared to break with Arab orthodoxy, Gen Burhan will be able to press home his point when he visits Washington in coming weeks.

Something may be afoot. No removal from the state sponsor of terrorism list is possible until Sudan pays compensation to relatives of those killed in attacks allegedly organised from Khartoum. Those include 17 US sailors killed and 39 injured in a 2000 attack on the USS Cole, as well as 200 people killed in 1998 explosions outside US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.

For a whole generation of western officials, Sudan equates to genocide and terrorism. Now the country has a chance to change that perception. Yet without outside help, including financial, the risk is that its democratic experiment will slip backwards. In the age of President Donald Trump, it has no obvious champion in Washington. Nor do Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states currently propping up Sudan have much interest in seeing a vibrant democracy take hold.

Sudan’s revolution is still alive, but it can be crushed at any time. After decades of dictatorship, institutions are weak. The military and the Islamists are waiting for their chance. With encouragement from outside, Sudan could yet surprise everyone by installing genuine democracy. Without it, the path of Egypt or Myanmar beckons.

Follow David Pilling with myFT and on Twitter

Email david.pilling@ft.com

View Original: https://www.ft.com/content/b295bbe0-4d78-11ea-95a0-43d18ec715f5