Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok is reported to be under house arrest in Sudan’s capital Khartoum.
Jeffrey Feltman, the US special envoy for the Horn of Africa, has stated that the “US is deeply alarmed at reports of a military take-over of the transitional government.” He added that such a coup would “contravene the Constitutional Declaration and the democratic aspirations of the Sudanese people and is utterly unacceptable.”
Mobile mobilisation
According to the twitter profile NetBlocks, a UK-based Internet Observatory, Sudan’s internet has been disrupted, with connectivity at 34% of usual levels.
Ahead of a widespread internet outage, Moniem Ibrahim, the television Director at Sudan’s Bukra TV is urging people to resist the coup by the military forces through a mobile mobilisation.
“Resist the coup by posting the alert below before the internet is cut off. Honourable revolutionaries, in case there are internet outages and coups to control the media, please follow the news through the news bar on #سودان_بكرة (#Sudan _ Bukra) the Bukra TV channel, which is not under control by the coup.
Details so far
A local broadcaster says men in army uniforms surrounded his home early this Monday morning.
Several political leaders leading the current transition government have also reportedly been detained.
Joint patrols from the powerful RSF militia and the army have been seen on the streets, according to Reuters.
Following from previous attempt
The actions come a month after a previous coup attempt on 21 September, believed to have been caused by supporters of toppled president Omar al-Bashir.
In June, authorities in Khartoum detained more than 200 members of the former ruling party. It said they had been “preparing for acts of destruction”, echoing similar sentiments made by Abdalla Hamdok, Sudan’s Prime Minister, just weeks before.
Some analysts believe Bashir’s backers are piggybacking on social discontent to boost his case – his trial is due to restart shortly.
The 21 September coup saw soldiers seize the radio station in Omdurman along with demonstrators blocking key roads around Port Sudan, while life in Khartoum continued largely oblivious to such developments, a throw back to coup attempts from the 1970s.
Today’s coup attempt seems more co-ordinated, according to the latest dispatches.
“The military has also blocked all roads and bridges leading into Khartoum city”, reports Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan. “We’ve seen soldiers blocking access and they are telling us these are the orders they got. They are saying access to Khartoum city is to be restricted, and this is raising concern because that’s where the government institutions are, that’s where the presidential palace and the prime minister’s offices are located.”
More on this story as it develops