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Monday’s arrests occurred after several weeks of tension between Sudan’s civilian and military leaders.
Officials said the military detained at least five senior Sudanese government officials on Monday because the country’s major democratic groups called on people to take to the streets to fight an apparent military coup.
The Sudan Professional Association, a group leading the request for a democratic transition, also stated that the Internet and telephone signals across the country were disrupted.
A possible military takeover would be a major setback for Sudan. Since the long-time dictator Omar al-Bashir was overthrown by large-scale protests, Sudan has been working hard to transition to democracy.
Monday’s arrests occurred after several weeks of tension between Sudan’s civilian and military leaders. The attempted coup in September attempted to split the country along the old route, hoping that conservatives in the military government would clashed with those who overthrew Bashir in large-scale protests more than two years ago. In recent days, both camps have taken to the streets to demonstrate.
Two officials who asked not to be named confirmed the arrest of five government figures because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Officials said that the detained government members included Minister of Industry Ibrahim Al Sheikh, Minister of Information Hamza Balur, and member of the country’s governing transitional body (known as the Sovereign Council) Mohamed Al Fiki. Suliman, and Faisal Mohamed Saleh Abdullah Hamdok, the prime minister’s media adviser.
Hamdok’s whereabouts are not yet known, and media reports stated that security forces are stationed outside his home in Khartoum. Photos circulating on the Internet showed a man in uniform standing in the dark, allegedly near his home.
According to the official Facebook page of its office, Ayman Khalid, the governor of the state where the capital Khartoum is located, was also arrested.
The arrest was carried out after the US special envoy for the Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Feltman, met with Sudanese military and civilian leaders on Saturday and Sunday to resolve the dispute. The Sudanese national news website focused on meetings with military officials.
NetBlocks, an organization that tracks the entire Internet outage, said that early Monday, there were “major outages” in fixed and mobile Internet connections across Sudan with multiple suppliers.
“The indicators confirm that the network outages reported by users seem to be consistent with the Internet shutdown,” the advocacy group said. “Interruptions may restrict the free flow of online information and news coverage of local events.”
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