Khartoum, Tuesday

Sudan’s deposed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said on Monday the reinstatement of his government, dissolved in a military coup, could pave the way to a solution in the country, the information ministry said, as international mediation progressed to end the political crisis.

Hamdok spoke during a meeting at his home, where he is under effective house arrest, with the ambassadors of the United States, Britain and Norway, the ministry, which remains loyal to the prime minister, said.

On October 25, Sudan’s top General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan dissolved the cabinet as well as the ruling joint military-civilian Sovereign Council, which had been heading Sudan’s transition towards full civilian rule following the 2019 overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir.

In a move widely condemned internationally, Burhan declared a state of emergency and detained Sudan’s civilian leadership, including Hamdok and members of his government.

The overthrown prime minister, an international economist, “insisted on the legitimacy of his government and transitional institutions”, the information ministry said on its Facebook page.

He added that “the release of the cabinet ministers and the full reinstatement of the government could pave the way to a solution,” the ministry said.

Hamdok, according to the statement, demanded that the situation in Sudan return to what it was before the coup, refusing to negotiate with the military rulers.

The statement added the three ambassadors also informed Hamdok the US special envoy for the Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Feltman, would arrive on Tuesday in Khartoum “to pursue efforts to ease the crisis”.

Mediation efforts in Sudan and abroad have meanwhile, been under way to find a possible solution for the country, the UN envoy to Khartoum said on Monday.

“Many of the interlocutors we are speaking with in Khartoum, but also internationally and regionally, are expressing a strong desire that we move forward quickly to get out of the crisis and return to the steps of normalcy,” Volker Perthes told reporters at the United Nations headquarters in New York, during a video conference from the Sudanese capital.

The UN envoy to Sudan met Sunday with Hamdok. Perthes said on Twitter they “discussed options for mediation and the way forward for Sudan”.

Perthes on Monday urged Sudan to return “to the steps of political transition, as we viewed it before 25 October,” the date of the coup.

Earlier on Monday, a Sudanese lawyer representing the detained civilian leaders said their whereabouts is unknown and that they are in a “dangerous legal situation”.  – AFP