Sudan repulses spy agency's coup in deadly gunfight

KHARTOUM - Sudan government says it managed to quell a mutiny staged by members of spy agencies, following bloody gunfire exchange in Khartoum.

Gunfire rocked the capital Khartoum for the better part of Tuesday and Wednesday, causing panic among members of the public, local media said.

The North Africa nation is currently under transitional government after long-time ruler Omar Al-Bashir was ousted following a civil uprising in 2019.

But military officers and militias allied to government quickly intervened, thwarting a possible coup by disfranchised spy agency team, Al-Arabiya reported.

Army seized control

The army said early Wednesday two soldiers were killed and four others were wounded during the operation to eliminate the rebellion, according to al-Arabiya.

The uprising was staged by intelligence staff objecting to the restructuring of the service and their financial compensation, Information Minister Faisal Mohamed Saleh said on state TV.

Some of the areas affected we're greater Khartoum’s Riyadh, Suba and Bahri districts, as well as al-Obeid, a regional capital about 370 kilometers (230 miles) to the southwest, he said.

Since Al-Bashir's ouster, the country is undergoing a serious economic and political revolution, which seems to face resistance from bureaucrats.

Sudan's radical changes

To appeal to the international community, the transitional government has instigated a litany of reforms, seeking to overturn the dark past.

Abdalla Hamdok, the Prime Minister of the country, has been traversing the world, seeking to have Sudan expunged from a terrorism blacklist.

Later Tuesday, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok declared “the incidents which took place today are under control.”

“They will not stop us and our mission nor will they be a reason for us to retreat from the goals of this revolution,” the former United Nations economist said on his Twitter account.

Flights were suspended from 3 p.m. to protect passengers, the spokesman of the civil aviation authority, Abdul Hafiz Abdul Rahman, told Bloomberg, without elaborating.

Normalcy restored in Sudan

Khartoum International Airport is close to the city’s Riyadh district, which was worst affected by attempted mutiny.

Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of Sudan’s sovereign counsel, said in a statement that armed forces had gained control of all military headquarters and Khartoum airport had resumed operations, al-Arabiya reported early Wednesday.

What happened Tuesday was an attempt to abort the revolution, al-Burhan said. “The armed forces will remain cohesive to protect the transitional period,” he said.

For months now, Khartoum has witnessed relative peace following six months of violent demonstrations that culminated into Al-Bashir's ouster.

Throughout that period, unarmed demonstrators camped within the city, before they were finally helped by the military which kicked out the strongman.

Al-Bashir's predicament

And Mr. Al-Bashir is now facing voluminous charges in court, even having been convicted of mass corruption.

A Sudanese court has put the former President, who remains caged in a prison, on toes to explain circumstances behind the 1989 coup, state media reported.

Al-Bashir could be condemned to the death penalty should he be convicted of the coup, which led to the deaths of several civilians.

Hamdok recently visited the United States of America where he pleaded with Washington "to at least note our tremendous progress".

GAROWE ONLINE