Addis Ababa, January 3, 2022 – Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has resigned amid political deadlock and widespread protests following a military coup that derailed the country’s fragile transition to democracy.
Hamdok’s decision, announced in a televised address late on Sunday, came six weeks after he returned to his post in a deal with the coup leaders he argued could save Sudan’s political transition. But the pro-democracy movement rejected that agreement, and Hamdok failed to name a new government as thousands of people continued to protest against the military’s power grab.
In his resignation speech, Hamdok said a roundtable discussion is needed to agree on a new “national charter” and to “draw a road map” to complete Sudan’s transition to democracy.
“I decided to give back the responsibility and announce my resignation as prime minister, and give a chance to another man or woman of this noble country to … help it pass through what’s left of the transitional period to a civilian democratic country,” Hamdok said.
The announcement throws Sudan’s future deeper into uncertainty, three years after an uprising that led to the overthrow of longtime leader Omar al-Bashir.
An economist and former United Nations official widely respected by the international community, Hamdok became prime minister in 2019 under a power-sharing agreement that promised multiparty elections in 2023.
But military-civilian ties became frayed as the army refused to cede power, and on October 25, Hamdok was removed and placed under house arrest. He was reinstated on November 21 in a deal that called for an independent technocratic cabinet under military oversight.
According to Aljazeera, Sudan’s pro-democracy movement denounced that agreement, however, insisting that power be handed over to a fully civilian government.