Sudan’s reinstated Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has replaced the country’s police chiefs behind a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
Hamdok said in a statement on Saturday that the director-general of the police, Khaled Mahdi Ibrahim al-Emam, and his deputy, Ali Ibrahim, had been removed from their posts and replaced by Anan Hamed Mohamed Omar and Abdelrahman Nasreddine Abdallah as his deputy.
At least 42 people were killed in the brutal police crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators following a military coup last month.
Junta leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan dissolved Sudan’s transitional government on October 25 and arrested the civilian leaders. However, Burhan reinstated Hamdok as the prime minister following international condemnation and mass protests.
Tens of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators held rallies across Sudan last week in protest at the deal between the junta leaders and Hamdok.
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They called for justice for “martyrs” killed by police in the pro-democracy demos, chanting “People want the downfall of the regime” and “the army back to the barracks!”
Massive anti-government demonstrations in 2019, triggered by economic woes, led to the ouster of then-president Omar al-Bashir.
Bashir’s autocratic government was replaced with a transitional civilian-military administration, Sudan’s highest executive authority.
Hamdok says he wants to pave the way for a smooth transition to democratic rule in Sudan.
