The Washington Post - USA (2021-11-22)

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22 , 2021. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

BY MAX BEARAK

AND MIRIAM BERGER

nairobi — Sudan’s military and
civilian leaders reached a deal
Sunday to reinstate Prime Minis-
ter Abdalla Hamdok, who was
ousted in a coup last month that
reignited mass protests and po-
litical uncertainty more than two
years after a popular uprising
forced out longtime autocrat
Omar Hassan al-Bashir.
Hamdok, who had spent the
past month under house arrest,
praised the agreement as a way to
restore Sudan’s fragile democrat-
ic transition, but the country’s
swelling and powerful protest
movement, which seeks the re-
moval of the military leaders
behind the coup, roundly reject-
ed the deal.
The Sudanese Professionals
Association, which has been at
the forefront of protests that
have roiled the country since late
2018, called it a “treasonous
agreement.” The organization
said the deal fell “far from the
aspirations of our people” and
was “nothing more than ink on
paper.”
Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan,
who had used a state of emergen-
cy to consolidate power within
his office, said Hamdok would
lead “an independent techno-
cratic cabinet until elections can
be held,” according to the Associ-
ated Press. The government
would still remain under military
oversight, the AP reported.
The deal seemed likely to fur-
ther plunge Sudan into turmoil
rather than calm weeks of pro-
tests and strikes that have para-
lyzed the capital, Khartoum. A
prominent doctors union alleged
that security forces have killed 40
protesters since the coup. Some
were killed by live ammunition,
the group said. Others suffocated
from widespread use of tear gas.
Hamdok called for an end to
the clashes.
“I know our youth have the
capacity for sacrifice, determina-
tion and giving up all that is
precious,” he said Sunday, ac-
cording to Reuters. “But Suda-
nese blood is precious. Let us
stop the bloodshed and direct the
youths’ energy into building and
development.”

The deal reportedly includes

guarantees to release govern-

ment officials and politicians

held since the Oct. 25 military

takeover.

Many protesters had hoped

that Hamdok would hold out for

an agreement that would ensure

a full transfer of power to civil-

ians and not a deal with coup

orchestrators who had begun as-

sembling a government full of

figures from the Bashir regime.

Protesters were out in the

thousands Sunday, many openly

denouncing Hamdok, who until

now had been seen as a kind of

hero, enduring house arrest

while pushing for a civilian gov-

ernment.

“The streets have already

vowed to keep resisting, so it’s

likely that we’ll see more, not

fewer, protests,” said Kholood

Khair, managing partner at In-

sight Strategy Partners, a policy

research think tank in Khar-

toum. “They feel that they have

been betrayed multiple times al-

ready and that now Hamdok is

the latest.”

The Forces of Freedom and

Change, a political party that was

part of Hamdok’s pre-coup gov-

ernment, said its position re-

mained clear: “No negotiation

and no partnership and no legiti-

macy for the putschists.”

The deal follows weeks of fe-

verish shuttle diplomacy by re-

gional powers as well as top U.S.

officials in the region.

Senior State Department offi-

cials had been pushing for Ham-

dok to be returned to power,

including in recent visits by Mol-

ly Phee, the top U.S. diplomat in

Africa, and Jeffrey Feltman, the

special envoy for the Horn of

Africa region.

Phee traveled to Khartoum

from Nov. 14 to 16 and worked to

advance efforts to “support the

democratic aspirations of the Su-

danese people and to restore the

country’s civilian transition to

democracy, including the return

of Prime Minister Hamdok,” ac-

cording to a State Department

spokesman.

During her meetings, the

spokesman said, Phee “urged the

release of civilian leaders and

protesters detained since the Oc-

tober 25 military takeover and

called for the security services to

exercise restraint in dealing with

peaceful protests.” She also met

with Burhan.

A senior State Department of-

ficial, speaking on the condition

of anonymity to give a more

candid assessment of Sunday’s

deal, said, “The announcement

itself is not what we’re looking

for. We’re looking for execution

and this to stick.”

[email protected]

[email protected]

John Hudson in Washington

contributed to this report.

Sudan’s military reinstates civilian

prime minister, but protests continue

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

Protesters rally Sunday in Khartoum after a deal to reinstate the

prime minister kept the government under military oversight.

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