Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok resigns as Prime Minister of Sudan. He announced this in a speech on television on Sunday, international news agencies report. His departure comes less than two months after he reached an agreement with the military, which deposed him at the end of October.
Hamdok says a roundtable discussion is needed to conclude a new agreement that should make Sudan a democracy. He called the political forces in the country too “fragmented” and the civilian and military camps too incompatible to reach an agreement. “I have decided to hand back responsibility,” he said, according to Reuters. “And give a chance to another man or woman of this noble country to help it move through the transition period, or what’s left of it, to a civil democratic country.”
The civilian prime minister led a transitional government for two years that was appointed after the fall of Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir. The government was made up of an uneasy alliance: on the one hand, soldiers and militia leaders who had helped suppress the country for thirty years, and on the other, leaders of civilian movements representing the Sudanese people.
Also read: Tired Prime Minister Hamdok still gives in to General Burhan
Hamdok was suddenly overthrown in October by the army that seized power under General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. Last month, he unexpectedly concluded an agreement with the army and returned to the political scene. He did this to prevent “more bloodshed,” he told Al Jazeera. He and Al-Burhan had agreed that Hamdok would lead a government of “technocrats”. He had refused to form such a government after the coup. “We have found ourselves in a political deadlock and this agreement gives us the opportunity to get out of that dark tunnel.”
Since the coup, thousands of Sudanese have taken to the streets several times to demonstrate. Thousands also took to the streets in the capital Khartoum on Sunday. Two people were killed, reports Al Jazeera. At least 56 people have died in the protests since October, according to the Sudan Central Doctors Committee, a group of doctors.
Also read: Street protest in Khartoum after military coup
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