The chief of Sudan’s ruling body has pledged on Sunday to reform the army, days after a failed coup.
“We are going to reorganize the armed forces… Partisan activities are banned in the army,” Sovereign Council chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said at the opening of a military hospital in Khartoum.
“The armed forces are committed to holding elections on the date fixed for ending the transition” in 2023, he said. “After that, the army will leave the political scene and its role will be limited to protecting the country.”
Sudan is led by a civilian-military administration, under an August 2019 power-sharing deal, signed after former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir’s ouster by the military in April of that year, following mass protests against his iron-fisted rule.
Sudan’s government said that it thwarted a September 21 coup attempt involving military officers and civilians linked to the regime of the imprisoned Bashir. At least 11 officers were among those arrested.
It was gathered that the Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has since called for reforms within the army, a highly sensitive issue in Sudan.
Paramilitary leader and Burhan’s deputy in the Sovereign Council, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has blamed politicians after the failed coup.
“Politicians are the main cause behind coups because they have neglected the average citizen… and are more concerned with fighting over how they can stay in power,” Daglo said.
Sudan is on a fragile path to democracy after a popular uprising led the military to overthrow the longtime dictator al-Bashir in April 2019.
