Sudan’s Prime Minister, Abdalla Hamdok, has resigned in the aftermath of another day of mass protests in Khartoum.
Thousands of people marched in protest of his recent agreement to share power with the army, which staged a coup in October.
Protesters chanted “Power to the people” and called for the restoration of full civilian rule.
Military forces, on the other hand, retaliated violently, killing two people.
The army now has complete control as a result of Mr. Hamdok’s resignation.
It is yet another setback for Sudan’s shaky democratic transition after a popular uprising in 2019 resulted in the overthrow of Sudan’s long-serving authoritarian President Omar al-Bashir.
In a televised address, Mr. Hamdok stated that the country was at a “dangerous turning point that threatens its entire survival.”
He claimed that he had done everything in his power to keep the country from “sliding into disaster,” but that “despite everything that has been done to reach a consensus… it has not happened.”Following the army’s October 25 coup, which initially placed Prime Minister Hamdok under house arrest, civilian and military leaders reached an uneasy power-sharing agreement.
When the army seized power, the country was only one month away from electing a civilian president.
Mr. Hamdok, a trained economist, is well-known in the international community, having previously worked as a UN official.
He aided in the negotiation of a deal to forgive some of Sudan’s debts, but this necessitated the elimination of fuel subsidies, which caused the prices of many basic goods to rise and sparked anti-government protests.
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The November agreement with Mr. Hamdok called for the reinstated prime minister to lead a technocratic cabinet until elections could be held.
However, it remained unclear how much power the new civilian government would have, and anti-military protests resurfaced, often violently suppressed.
Protests continued even after Mr. Hamdok was reinstated, with some claiming that his reinstatement helped legitimize the military takeover.
In response to Mr. Hamdok’s resignation, the US urged Sudan’s leaders to stop violence against anti-military protesters.
More than 50 people have been killed during protests since the coup, including at least two on Sunday, according to the Sudan Central Doctors’ Committee.
Mr. Hamdok’s resignation, according to a spokesman for the opposition Sudanese Congress Party, demonstrated that the military was losing leverage in gaining international recognition and popular support.
Thousands of people marched through the streets of Khartoum and Omdurman on Sunday, chanting and demanding that the military leave politics.
On social media, activists declared 2022 to be “the year of the continuation of the resistance.”
The coup leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has defended the October coup, claiming that the army acted to prevent a civil war. Sudan, he says, is still committed to a civilian transition, with elections scheduled for July 2023.
