Sudan PM Abdalla Hamdok resigns amid political deadlock

Hamdok resigns less than two months after he signed a political agreement with the military following the October 25 coup.

Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has resigned amid political deadlock following a military coup that derailed the country’s fragile transition to democracy.

In a televised speech late on Sunday, Hamdok, who signed a political agreement with the military in November, said a roundtable discussion is needed to reach a new deal.

Hamdok, a former United Nations official seen as the civilian face of Sudan’s transitional government, was reinstated in November amid international pressure in a deal that called for an independent technocratic cabinet under military oversight led by him.

That deal, however, was rejected by the pro-democracy movement, which insists that power be handed over to a fully civilian government tasked with leading the transition.

Hamdok’s resignation came after Sudanese security forces violently dispersed the pro-democracy protesters against the October 25 military coup, killing at least two people, a medical group said.

Sudanese protest to denounce the October 2021 military coup, in Khartoum [Marwan Ali/AP]

Thousands had taken to the streets in Khartoum and other cities across the country to denounce the military takeover, and a subsequent deal that reinstated the prime minister but sidelined the pro-democracy movement.

The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors (CCSD), which is part of the pro-democracy movement, on Sunday said one of the dead was hit “violently” in his head while taking part in a protest march in Khartoum.

The second was shot in his chest in Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman, the group said, adding that dozens of protesters were injured.

Sunday’s fatalities brought the death toll among protesters since the coup to at least 56, according to the medical group.

The October military takeover upended a fragile planned transition to democratic rule following a popular uprising that forced the military’s overthrow of longtime leader Omar al-Bashir and his government in April 2019.