NOTE from Sudan Watch editor: The following news from Reuters dated 14 January 2020 says Sudan's former head of intelligence Mr Salah Gosh is believed to be in Egypt. Also, the Sudanese army quelled an armed revolt in Sudan by Gosh's former security agents on 14 January 2020. Wondering whether Alex de Waal would class the 'revolt' as an attempted coup and add it, plus the one last July (see below), to his list of others in Sudan (see History of coups in Khartoum Sudan by Alex de Waal - Sudan Watch, 21 April 2019 https://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2019/04/history-of-coups-in-khartoum-sudan-alex.html)
Copy of news report from Reuters.com
Publication date: Tuesday 14 January 2020, 11:27 AM
By: Khaled Abelaziz, El Tayeb Siddig
Title: UPDATE 6-Sudan quells revolt of former spy service men after clashes
* Gunfire heard in capital, two oilfields shut down
* Sudan in middle of transition after ousting of Bashir
* Paramilitary head says will not accept any coup (Adds army retakes intelligence buildings, details)
KHARTOUM, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Armed ex-security agents linked to Sudan’s toppled ruler Omar al-Bashir fought soldiers in the capital Khartoum for hours until government forces quelled the revolt late on Tuesday, residents and a military source said.
The violence was the biggest confrontation so far between the old guard and supporters of the new administration, which helped topple Bashir in April after 30 years in power.
The former employees of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) also shut two small oilfields in Darfur in protest about their severance packages, a government source told Reuters. They had an output of around 5,000 barrels per day.
Late Tuesday, soldiers seized back control of all buildings where ex-NISS agents had hours earlier opened fire on government forces, a military source told Reuters.
The former NISS staff surrendered after negotiations, the source said.
Restructuring the once feared security apparatus blamed for suppressing dissent under Bashir was among the key demands of the uprising that forced his removal.
However, once dismissed by the new transitional government, many of the security agents returned to their barracks without being disarmed after leaving the ministries and streets they once controlled.
Residents said the clashes broke out at noon between the former security staff and forces loyal to the transitional government in a northern district of Khartoum where gunfire could be heard for hours.
In a second location next to the airport, ex-NISS staff seized a security building, which was then surrounded by government forces and where gunfire could also be heard, witnesses said.
Four people suffered gunshot wounds but were in stable condition, a doctors’ committee linked to the civilian government said in a statement.
Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Sudan’s most powerful paramilitary group, which supports the new government, said while he would not consider Tuesday’s incident a coup attempt, any such action would not be tolerated.
“We will not accept any coup, we will not accept any illegal change. The only change will come from the Sudanese people,” he said before his troops helped end the revolt.
AIRSPACE CLOSED
Information Minister Faisal Mohamed Saleh said the gunmen were former employees angry at the terms they had been offered upon their dismissal.
Authorities closed Sudan’s airspace for five hours as a precautionary measure after the start of the shooting, a Civil Aviation Ministry spokesman said.
Dagalo said that former Sudan intelligence chief Salah Gosh and a member of Bashir’s old ruling party was behind the NISS unrest.
“This is a coordinated plan by Salah Gosh and another member of the National Congress party including some generals from intelligence service,” he told a news conference during a visit to South Sudan’s capital Juba on Tuesday.
“The person behind this shooting today is Salah Gosh. He has many generals active within the security sector with an aim to create confusion and fighting.”
Gosh, believed to be in Egypt, could not be immediately reached for comment.
(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz, Eltayeb Siddig and Nayera Abdallah with additional reporting by Denis Dumo in Juba; Writing by Amina Ismail and Ulf Laessing; Editing by William Maclean, Alison Williams, and Marguerita Choy)
View original: https://af.reuters.com/article/sudanNews/idAFL8N29J2TF
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Copy of news report by Reuters
Publication date: Tuesday 14 January 2020, 9:54 PM
Title: Sudanese government forces retake all intelligence buildings in capital - military source
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese government forces managed late on Tuesday to retake all intelligence buildings in capital held by security agents in revolt, a military source said.
The security agents surrendered after negotiations with their leaders, the source said. They had opened fire to protest against their severance packages.
(Reporting by Khaled Abdelaziz; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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Report from The Guardian UK
By AFP in Khartoum, Sudan
Publication date: Thu 11 July 2019 23.04 BST
Last modified on Thu 11 July 2019 23.27 BST
Title: Sudan's ruling militia says it's survived coup attempt
Photo: Gen Jamal Omar of Sudan’s ruling military council says 16 soldiers have been arrested. Photograph: Ashraf Shazly/AFP/Getty
Excerpts: Sudan’s ruling military council has foiled a coup attempt, a top general has announced on state television, saying that 12 officers and four soldiers have been arrested.
“Officers and soldiers from the army and national intelligence and security service, some of them retired, were trying to carry out a coup,” Gen Jamal Omar of the ruling military council said in a statement broadcast live on state television. “The regular forces were able to foil the attempt.” He did not say when the attempt was made.
