Sudan: Arrests continue after foiled coup

More military and Islamic leaders have been arrested in Sudan after the foiled coup attempt last week.

On Wednesday, the ruling Transitional Military Council that ousted President Omar Al Bashir on April 11, announced that the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) prevented a new coup d’état. The new putsch was led by the former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff with support of some ‘leaders of the ousted regime’ and elements of the Islamist Movement.

Coup leader Gen Hashim Abdelmutalab and a number of senior SAF officers and leading figures of the former regime were immediately detained for interrogation following the coup attempt.

On Thursday, the authorities arrested Lt Gen Imadeldin Adawi, former SAF Chief of Staff, Sayed El Khatib, Director of the Centre for Strategic Studies and leading member of the National Congress Party, and Tarig Hamza, executive director of Sudatel Telecommunications Company.

A part of the video recording of Abdelmutalab’s interrogation was leaked to the media. The former army Chief of Staff admitted he masterminded the failed coup attempt. He said he has been a member of the Islamist Movement since he was a lieutenant in the Sudanese army.

He said prominent members of the former regime, among them Nafi Ali Nafi, former Assistant to the President, Ali Karti (former FA Minister), and Awad El Jaz (former Minister of Oil), advised him not to stage a coup because it would only lead to bloodshed.

Sources revealed that the coup planners intended to carry out their action on July 10, however because some team members fell out, the ‘the zero hour’ was postponed to July 24.

More than 70 army officers, including two with the rank of lieutenant general, 18 major generals, along with 15 officers of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), and dozens of Islamists and National Congress Party members have been accused of planning the foiled coup.

Reportedly, 54 of them have been arrested. Others went into hiding.

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