Deal reached to reinstate ousted prime minister in Sudan, officials say

A deal reportedly has been brokered in Sudan to reinstate the ousted prime minister weeks after the nation’s military led a coup that drove him out of power.

A source close to Sudan Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok told Reuters on Sunday that the leader is on board with the deal, under which all political detainees would be freed, to stop the bloodshed. Limitations on Hamdok’s movement have been cleared by the Sudanese military, according to Reuters, and the security forces that were ordered to watch outside his home have been dismissed.

The New York Times reported that Hamdok was freed from detention shortly after the agreement was announced.

The civilian group that shared power with the military, however, previously said that it was against any conversations with the “putschists,” Reuters reported, adding that the coalition encouraged protesters to continue demonstrations on Sunday.

With the new government, Hamdok will create an independent cabinet of technocrats, said Fadlallah Burma Nasir, the chief of the Umma Party who was at the talks that led to the deal, Reuters reported.

The military took control of Sudan on Oct. 25, putting Hamdok under house arrest and foiling any hopes the Sudanese people had for a move toward democracy following the toppling of Omar al-Bashir in 2019, which put an end to his three decades of autocratic rule, the news service noted.

Once it seized power, the military disbanded Hamdok’s cabinet and took a number of top-serving civilians into custody. Those civilians were reportedly part of the power-sharing deal that was brokered with the military after Bashir was overthrown.

The coup sparked international criticism.  Shortly after reports of the coup circulated, Special Envoy Jeffrey Feltman, said the U.S. was “deeply alarmed at reports of a military take-over of the transitional government.”

“This would contravene the Constitutional Declaration and the democratic aspirations of the Sudanese people and is utterly unacceptable,” Feltman wrote in a tweet. “As we have said repeatedly, any changes to the transitional government by force puts at risk U.S. assistance.”

–Updated at 8:18 a.m.