According to the office of the Sudanese Prime Minister, Abdalla Hamdok has been allowed to return home after having been detained by the country’s military in a coup attempt to seize power.
The deposed prime minister and his wife were under “heavy security” at their home in Khartoum, though other civilian officials arrested on the day of the coup remained in detention, with their locations unknown, according to the statement made by the PM’s office.
The release of Hamdok and his wife on Tuesday followed international condemnation of Sovereignty Council chairman Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s power grab. The United States has announced that they would suspend $700 million in aid to the country, with the European Union also threatening to halt its own aid.
Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres had also demanded Hamdok’s immediate release as he urged world powers to unite to confront what he called a recent “epidemic of coups.”
The takeover comes as tensions between military and civilian leaders over the course and the pace of Sudan’s transition to democracy rose. Al-Burhan was supposed to hand the leadership of the Sovereign Council that runs the country to a civilian next month – a step that would have decreased the military’s grasp on power.
On Tuesday, pro-democracy demonstrators returned to the streets, blocking roads in the capital with makeshift barricades and burning tires. Troops had fired on crowds a day earlier, killing four protesters, according to reports.
