Sudan’s Army Chief Unveils New Sovereign Council After Coup

(Bloomberg) -- Sudan’s army chief announced a new sovereign council, the top decision-making body in the African country, digging in more than two weeks after staging a coup.

Top general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan heads the latest version of the council, while militia leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo remains deputy, state news agency SUNA said Thursday. While some ex-rebels who sat on the previous 14-member body were included, several civilian politicians were replaced.

Al-Burhan led the Oct. 25 putsch against Sudan’s joint civilian-military government that was supposed to lead the nation to democratic elections following the 2019 overthrow of long-time dictator Omar al-Bashir.

Noticeably absent from the new council is Mohamed al-Faki, who was arrested in the aftermath of the coup. Al-Faki was a major force inside the so-called Forces of Freedom and Charge, the main civilian group that spearheaded the Sudanese revolution in 2019.

“The military clearly feels little constraint to expanding its powers from either the street or international stakeholders,” said Jonas Horner, deputy director for Horn of Africa at the International Crisis Group.

Protesters are “almost certain to show their anger” over the new council, he said, but it’s the “military’s potentially violent response that holds the greatest potential for casualties and larger insecurity.”

Al-Burhan has also pressed ahead with a shakeup at government-owned media and the central bank. He fired the attorney general and the leaders of a committee probing illicit financial gains made during the three-decade reign of al-Bashir.

Sudan’s Information Ministry, which is still loyal to the civilian side of the ousted administration, said on its Facebook page that the new council was merely an “extension of the coup.”

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