Protests in Sudan won't lead to political solution: Military official

KHARTOUM, Sudan

The ongoing demonstrations in Sudan are a "waste and drain" that will not lead the country to a political solution, an official said on Friday.

In a statement, Al-Tahir Abu Haja, media adviser to the head of the Sudanese Sovereign Council and army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, said: “The continuation of the demonstrations in their current form is nothing but a material, psychological and mental drain, and a waste of energies and time that will not lead Sudan to a political solution.”

The official Sudanese News Agency quoted Haja as saying: “National consensus and circumventing the country's supreme issues and dialogue is the only way towards stability in Sudan.”

Meanwhile, Al-Hadi Idris, a member of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council, condemned on Friday “excessive violence against peaceful demonstrators during Thursday's demonstrations.”

On Thursday, protest rallies took place in several areas in the capital Khartoum, Kasala, and Port Sudan in the country's east, as well as the northern city of Atbara, according to an Anadolu Agency correspondent on the ground.

Protesters called for democratic civilian rule and decried a recent political deal between the military and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.

Internet services on Thursday were down in the capital and other areas prior to the demonstrations, as providers cut mobile services, with only landline connections remaining available.

On Wednesday, security authorities closed multiple bridges and overland routes, installing concrete barriers and barbed wire on roads leading to the presidential palace.

The calls for protest were made by the Sudanese Professionals Association, which rejected the deal signed last month and called for full civilian rule.

Sudan has been in turmoil since Oct. 25 when the Sudanese military dismissed Hamdok's transitional government and declared a state of emergency.

Hamdok, however, was reinstated on Nov. 21 under an agreement with army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan in a move rejected by Sudanese political and civil forces as an "attempt to legitimize the coup."

Before the Oct. 25 military takeover, Sudan was administered by a sovereign council of military and civilian officials overseeing the transition period until elections in 2023 as part of a precarious power-sharing pact between the military and the Forces of Freedom and Change coalition.

*Writing by Mahmoud Barakat in Ankara.