KHARTOUM: Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok has convened a crisis committee after days of anti-government protests.
The committee’s aim is to resolve the “most dangerous political crisis” seen in Sudan since the fall of Omar al Bashir in 2019, Hamdok said following an emergency Cabinet meeting.
Hamdok called on thousands of protesters who have been staging a sit-in outside the Palace of the Republic in Khartoum since Saturday to show restraint and to engage in dialogue.
The protesters are demanding that the army dissolve the transitional government that was supposed to return the country to democracy after the ouster of Bashir.
They blame Hamdok’s government for the deterioration of economic conditions and rising poverty. In early October, protesters blockaded the largest port for more than two weeks, prompting parliament to warn that Sudan would soon run out of medicine, petrol and wheat. The power supply is also uncertain due to the supply disruptions.
In late September, the military foiled an attempted coup near the capital.
The country was ruled by Bashir for 30 years until his ouster by the army in 2019 after mass protests.
SHUT DOWN
Facebook says it has shut down two large networks targeting users in Sudan in recent months, as civilian and military leaders spar with one another over the future of an interim power-sharing arrangement.
The battle for public opinion, much of it happening online, is intensifying as Sudan reels from economic crisis and a shaky transition to democracy following 30 years under Bashir, who was ousted in a popular uprising in 2019.
Facebook said one of the networks of inauthentic pages it took down was linked to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the other was populated with people who researchers, hired by the civilian government, flagged as supporters of Bashir agitating for a military takeover. — Agencies
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