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Crisis in Sudan: Prime Minister's House Surrounded and Arrests of Officials Reported

2021-10-25T06:25:43.997Z


Several senior Sudanese government officials have been arrested and taken to prison by men wearing military police uniforms, according to witnesses.


Trial against former Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir begins (2020) 1:26

Khartoum, Sudan (CNN) -

The Khartoum home of Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok appears to be surrounded by the military, according to footage from the scene.

It is unclear if the army is there to protect Hamdok, or if he is under house arrest in the capital.

Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok presides over an emergency cabinet session in the capital Khartoum on October 18.

Several senior government officials have reportedly been arrested and taken to prison by men wearing military police uniforms, according to witnesses to the arrests who have posted on social media, as well as Reuters and other outlets on the ground citing unidentified government sources.

Those arrested reportedly include government ministers and members of the Sudan Sovereignty Council.

CNN cannot independently verify the arrests.

Witnesses said that Monday morning local time, protesters were gathering in the streets of the capital to protest the arrests.

They have also lit bonfires and blocked roads.

This comes after the Sudan Professionals Association, a pro-democracy political group in Sudan, called on people to take to the streets to resist what it called a "military coup."

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Internet monitoring site NetBlocks reported an Internet outage in Sudan on Monday: "Sudan amid reports of military coup and arrest of prime minister; real-time network data shows national connectivity to 34% of normal levels; incident in progress ".

A source in Khartoum told CNN that calls to people in Sudan are not connecting and that the Internet is not working.

Political crisis

Military and civilian groups have been sharing power in the East African country in an uneasy alliance, known as the Sovereign Council, since the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir in 2019.

But after a failed coup attempt in September attributed to forces loyal to Bashir, military leaders have been demanding reforms from the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) coalition and the replacement of the cabinet.

Civilian leaders, however, have accused them of targeting a takeover, and with Sudan now grappling with the biggest political crisis in its two-year transition, protests have erupted in recent weeks.

Thousands of protesters gathered outside the presidential palace in Khartoum on October 17 calling for the military to take power.

They were organized by a faction aligned with the CFF army and called on General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the armed forces and the Joint Sovereign Civil and Military Council of Sudan, to initiate a coup and overthrow the government.

Days later, thousands of Sudanese protesters took to the streets of Khartoum and other cities to express their support for the civilian government within the country's power-sharing government.

This is news in development.

Additional information from Reuters.

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2021-10-25

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