Military: PM allowed to return home

CAIRO (AP):

A military official says Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok and his wife were allowed to return to their home in Khartoum. He said Hamdok’s house is “under heavy security”.

The official did not say Tuesday whether the Hamdoks are free to move or make calls. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to brief the media.

Sudan’s ruling general said Tuesday the prime minister he deposed in a coup was held for his own safety. But he warned that other members of the dissolved government could face trial as protests against the putsch continued in the streets.

A day after the military seized power in a move widely denounced by the international community, pro-democracy demonstrators blocked roads in the capital of Khartoum with makeshift barricades and burning tyres. Troops fired on crowds a day earlier, killing four protesters, according to doctors.

The takeover came after weeks of mounting tensions between military and civilian leaders over the course and the pace of Sudan’s transition to democracy. It threatened to derail that process, which has progressed in fits and starts since the overthrow of long-time autocrat Omar al-Bashir in a popular uprising two years ago.

The UN Security Council was to discuss the situation in Sudan, a nation in Africa linked by language and culture to the Arab world, at a closed-door meeting later Tuesday. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged world powers to come together to act decisively at the council, saying unity was needed to confront an “epidemic of coups d’état” recently.

In his second public appearance since seizing power, General Abdel-Fattah Burhan said Tuesday the military was forced to step in to resolve a growing political crisis.

“There were people who were talking about discriminating against others, and that was driving this country to reach a civil war that would lead to the fragmentation of this country, tearing apart its unity, its fabric and society. These dangers were in front of us,” Burhan told a televised news conference.

But the coup came less than a month before Burhan was supposed to hand the leadership of the Sovereign Council that runs the country to a civilian – a step that would have decreased the military’s hold on power.

“The whole country was deadlocked due to political rivalries,” Burhan said. “The experience during the past two years has proven that the participation of political forces in the transitional period is flawed and stirs up strife.”