Russia concerned over situation in Sudan, calls for restraint

MOSCOW

Russia on Tuesday voiced concern about the situation in Sudan after a coup and called on the Sudanese sides to exercise restraint.

“We would like to see the situation in the country return to constitutional order as soon as possible. Of course, we call on all parties to exercise restraint,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow.

The Sudanese people have to decide their future themselves, and Russia wishes this to happen as soon as possible without any loss of human lives, Peskov added.

“Sudan is very important to us in terms of the development of our relations in various fields. We are watching very closely what is happening there,” he said.

The head of Sudan’s ruling military council, Gen. Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, declared on Monday a state of emergency and dissolved the transitional sovereign council and government.

The move came hours after the military arrested Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and ministers in the civilian government.

Al-Burhan also announced the suspension of some provisions of the constitutional document outlining the political transition in Sudan.

According to the Sudanese Information Ministry, the military detained Hamdok early Monday after he refused to support what it described as a "coup".

After a failed military coup last month, deep tensions between the military and the civilian administration erupted in Sudan amid recent rival protests in Khartoum.

Before the dissolution, Sudan was administered by the Sovereign Council of military and civilian authorities, which oversaw the transition period until elections slated for 2023, as part of a precarious power-sharing pact between the military and the Forces for Freedom and Change coalition.