The Head of Sudan Transitional Sovereign Council, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has appointed 15 interim ministers in a post-Abdalla Hamdock government.
This came after an agreement was reached between the council and the U.S. delegation for a national independent government to be formed.
In the agreement, the government was to be comprised of technocrats tasked with launching an inclusive national dialogue to contain the boiling political turmoil.
In October 2021, unrest intensified following the ouster of the former Sudanese Prime Minister, Abdalla Hamdok, as he was kept under house arrest.
The military council later reinstated Hamdok but gave little room for him to pave the way for the full civilian government.
At the 66th independence anniversary, Burhan stated that Sudan was facing threats and appealed that the brewing crisis would be settled through dialogue.
“Political catastrophe”
But with continued protests from civilians as they demanded a fully civilian government and that the military should return to the barracks, Hamdok resigned on November 21, 2021, to make way for fresh minds to transition the country towards democracy.
There have been reported killings, use of live bullets, tear gas, and gross violations of human rights.
Critics said that Hamdok did the right thing by resigning because the space he was given after he was reinstated gave him little room to transition the country towards democracy.
On his resignation, Hamdok warned of “political catastrophe” and called for a roundtable discussion on the “national charter” to “draw a roadmap” for transitioning the country from military to democracy through elections in July 2023.
“My honourable people, based on all that I have mentioned, I have decided to return your trust to you and announce to you my resignation from the position of prime minister to make way for another one of the sons or daughters of this generous country to lead our dear homeland and carry it through the transition towards a reviving, civil and democratic state,” he added.
UN-led talks
The United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), agreed nearly a week ago to lead Sudanese-led consultations to enable the country to attain stability.
UNITAMS vowed to lead a process that would lead to the respect of human rights across the country, including investigating perpetrators of reported crimes, bringing them to book and allowing freedom to carry out peaceful demonstrations.
The Central Council for the Forces of Freedom and Change (CCFFC) accepted the UN-led consultations, while others saw the UN consultations as not being the best way of addressing the Sudanese problem.
Additional reporting by Reuters