KHARTOUM: Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok chairs a cabinet meeting in the capital yesterday. - AFP

KHARTOUM: Sudan's fragile transitional government said it foiled an attempted coup yesterday involving military officers and civilians linked to the ousted regime of longtime autocrat Omar Al-Bashir. Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said the coup attempt was the "latest manifestation of the national crisis", referring to deep divisions during Sudan's move to democracy.

In a televised speech, he said the plotters had "made extensive preparations, which were showcased in the security breakdown in cities... blocking of national roads, closure of ports and persistent instigation against the civilian government". Information Minister Hamza Baloul said later the coup attempt had been thwarted. "Order has been restored and the leaders of the attempted coup, both military and civilian, have been arrested," he said. "Authorities are pursuing supporters of the defunct regime" who took part.

The military said "most" of those involved had been apprehended, including 11 officers. "The army regained control over the sites that perpetrators sought to seize," it said. "Searches and investigations are still ongoing for others involved."

Sudan's army commander and head of the sovereign council Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan visited the military camp in south Khartoum where the coup attempt reportedly began. "Had it succeeded, the attempt could have had devastating consequences on the unity of the army, security forces, and the country," he said. State television had aired patriotic songs and urged people to "confront" the coup attempt.

In Khartoum, traffic flowed smoothly, including around the army headquarters, where protesters staged a months-long sit-in that eventually led to Bashir's overthrow in a palace coup by the army in 2019. Anti-coup demonstrations broke out in several cities. At Port Sudan in the east, protesters raised Sudanese flags and chanted "No to military rule" and "No to coup", eyewitness Mohamed Hassan said. Students took to the streets and shouted similar slogans in the eastern city of Gedaref, another eyewitness, Amal Hussein, told AFP.

Britain, Norway and the US voiced "strong support" for Sudan's government. "The Troika... rejects any attempts to derail or disrupt the Sudanese people's efforts to establish a democratic, peaceful, and prosperous future," they said in a statement. The UN condemned any attempt "to undermine the democratic political transition".

Sudan has had a long history of coups, including since Bashir's ouster, but those were small scale and immediately foiled. Officials have often blamed them Bashir's Islamist supporters of being behind them. Bashir, a one-time general, came to power on the back of an Islamist-backed military coup in 1989. Since his ouster, the ex-president has been jailed in Khartoum awaiting trial over the coup that brought him to power.

He is also wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide for his prosecution of a deadly scorched-earth campaign against ethnic minority rebels in Darfur. During a visit to Khartoum last month, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan signed a cooperation deal with the transitional authorities that marked another step towards Bashir facing trial in The Hague.

In an address to troops yesterday, powerful paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo said: "We will not allow a coup to take place. "We want real democratic transition through free and fair elections, not like in the past," said the commander, widely known as Hemeti. Under an Aug 2019 power-sharing deal, Sudan is ruled by a transitional government composed of both civilian and military representatives, and tasked with overseeing a return to full civilian rule.

The deal originally provided for the formation of a legislative assembly during a three-year transition, but that period was reset when Sudan signed the peace deal with rebel groups last October. Sudan remains plagued by chronic economic problems as well as deep divisions among the various factions steering the transition.

The promised legislative assembly has yet to materialize. In June, Hamdok had warned of worrying divisions within Sudan's military and security establishment. "The coup (attempt)... clearly indicates the importance of reform to the military and security sectors," he said yesterday. Civilians and former rebels have stepped up calls for armed groups and paramilitary forces to be merged into the regular army.

In recent months, tensions have reportedly simmered between paramilitaries and army commanders over the integration process. The transitional government has launched a package of tough economic reforms to qualify for debt relief from the International Monetary Fund, seen by many Sudanese as too harsh. - AFP