On December 27, Abdullah Hamdok met for the last time with the two leading men of the Sudanese military regime, Abd al-Fattah al-Burhan and Muhammad Hamdan Daglo.
On Sunday evening he did what had been in the making for weeks: The popular Prime Minister resigned from his office, which had become meaningless.
In a televised address, he said he could not keep his promise to keep a disaster out of the country.
In view of the political division, Sudan had "passed a dangerous turning point" and the country's very survival was threatened.
Rainer Hermann
Editor in politics.
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In the 15th military coup in the country, which has been independent since 1956, al-Burhan had Prime Minister Hamdok arrested on October 25 and dissolved all institutions that had been established for a transition to civil rule since the overthrow of ruler Omar al-Bashir in April 2019 .
Burhan appointed himself chairman of the transitional council, which had actually been dissolved and was made up of equal parts by the military and civilians, and was thus head of state.
Daglo remains his deputy.
As a result of international pressure, Burhan formally reinstated Hamdok on November 21, but did not provide him with competencies.
USA and World Bank freeze economic aid
Hamdok's resignation deepens the crisis in the North African country. The American State Department called on the rulers in Khartoum to use the country's civil forces to ensure a transition to a civil order and to fulfill the people's wishes for freedom, peace and justice. As a result of the October 25 coup, the African Union suspended Sudan's membership, the World Bank froze its economic aid, as did the United States.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said they were watching developments. The IMF and the World Bank enabled Sudan to cut debt in half to $ 28 billion as part of their debt reduction initiative in heavily indebted poor countries. One of the prerequisites for this was economic reforms that Hamdok initiated and some of which the military has withdrawn since it took full power. In February 2020, the IMF described the economic camp as "alarming".
At least 60 people have been killed in the protests against the October 25 military coup. Protesters often held posters with the picture of Hamdok on them. However, Hamdok had lost some of his supporters when he accepted Burhan's offer and became prime minister again for six weeks without Burhan and Daglo having indicated a willingness to return to a power-sharing with civilians and to initiate the transition to a civilian order.
Internationally, the military regime is isolated. It finds allies in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Burhan was partially trained at the military academy in Cairo and is in contact with the Egyptian generals, Daglo received military and financial aid from the Emirates for his quick support groups. In the months after the protests against the military regime of Omar al-Bashir began in late 2018, the Emirates transferred billions of dollars to prevent the demonstrators from winning. Daglo's units, from which the rapid support forces emerged, were held responsible for war crimes in the Darfur conflict, in which more than half a million people have been killed since 2003.
With the military coup on October 25 and Hamdok's resignation on January 2, the agreements for a transition to a civil order are obsolete.
On July 17, 2019, the Military Transitional Council and the Union of Forces for Freedom and Change, to which the opposition movements had come together, agreed to form an equal-numbered Sovereign Council.
The respected and experienced economist Hamdok was appointed prime minister, and his cabinet consisted of civilians and the military.
On August 11, 2021, the leadership in Khartoum agreed to extradite Bashir to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where he must answer for crimes against humanity.