ARRESTS IN SUDAN AFTER PM SURVIVES ASSINATIONATION ATTEMPT

Sudanese authorities have arrested a number of suspects in connection with what the government called an assasination attempt against Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, in an incident that underlines the fragility of the country’s transition to civilian rule.

Officials
and state media said on Monday Hamdok,
64, survived unharmed after a bomb and gun attack targeted his motorcade in the
capital, Khartoum.

In a Twitter post, Hamdok said he was in “good shape” and that what had happened would be “an additional push to the wheel of change in Sudan”, where he heads a transitional government following the military overthrow in April last year of longtime President Omar al- Bahir in the face of months-long pro-democracy protests.

Khartoum Governor Ahmed Abdoon
told Al Jazeera that a number of people
suspected of involvement in the attack had been attacked, without
providing additional details.

The country’s top prosecutor, Taj
al-Ser Ali al-Hebr, said in a statement that prosecutors have embarked on their
investigation into the “professionally plotted” attack.

Falih Salih, Sudan’s information
minister, said an investigation was under way to determine who was behind the
attack.

“Terrorist attempts and
dismantling the old regime will be dealt with decisively,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sudan’s National Security
and Defence Council said it was seeking the support of Sudan’s
“friends” in investigating who was behind the assassination attempt.

Following a meeting on Monday,
Interior Minister al-Traifi Daffallah Idriss said in a statement the council
decided to “request the help of [Sudan’s] friends to uncover those
involved in the attack and bringing them to justice”, the Sudan Tribune
reported.

‘Very loud explosion’

The blast
near Hamdok’s motorcade struck at around 9am local time (10:00 GST) close to Kober bridge
while the prime minister was heading to his office, Ali Bakhit, his office
director, said in a Facebook post.

A security
officer was lightly wounded.

“The explosion was very loud
and the glass from all four floors broke,” witness Alaa Eldeen Fahmi
told Al Jazeera.

“I went out to see and found
two cars badly damaged and another which I assumed was the prime minister’s car
driving away with a security convoy,” he said.

After Monday’s attack, the Sudanese
Professionals Association (SPA), which spearheaded the anti-al-Bashir movement,
called for further rallies to display unity and support for civilian rule.

A statement by the Forces for the
Declaration of Freedom and Change (FFC) alliance also called on people to take
to the streets to “show our unity and cohesion … and protect the
transitional authority”.

After the attack, dozens of
demonstrators in Khartoum added their voice to a public show of support for
Hamdok, chanting “with our blood and soul, we will sacrifice ourselves for
you”.

“This is our homeland and
Hamdok is our leader,” they said.

Challenges ahead

Despite the support, Hamdok will
likely encounter challenges to his “wheel of change”.

His appointment as prime minister
came on the back of a power-sharing deal between the generals who overthrew
al-Bashir and the leaders of the months-long protest movement.

After months of fraught on-and-off
negotiations, the two sides in August signed a three-year power-sharing deal
leading to the formation of an 11-member sovereign council and the appointment
of a technocratic, transitional government under Hamdok, a veteran economist
and former United Nations official.

Since taking office, Hamdok has
pledged to tackle pressing social and economic challenges while also attempting
to forge peace with the country’s various rebel groups.

Jonas Horner, a senior analyst on
Sudan with International Crisis Group, said Monday’s attack “will remind
both Sudanese and the country’s international backers of the role of the
military” during the transitional period.

“It also is likely to herald a
greater securitisation of the transition but will simultaneously serve to rally
Sudanese around Hamdok, the face of Sudan’s post-Bashir era,” he told Al
Jazeera.

Looking ahead, Horner said, the core
challenges to delivering on the goals of the uprising “remain as they
were” when al-Bashir was overthrown on April 11, 2019: reform of the
security sector and the economy.

“Hamdok and the transitional
government could do much more to advance the country’s transition,” he
added, noting that legal, economic and welfare reforms were “all badly
needed to ensure ordinary Sudanese see the dividends of the
protests”.

Whether the attack was instigated by
former “regime supporters or by more classical terrorists”, civilian
leaders and protesters should worry that such attacks may contribute to a
“common international opinion that only a military regime can prevent such
threats,” Jerome Tubiana, a
researcher on Sudan, told Al Jazeera.

While Hamdok has focus a lot on sudan’s economic crisis, the attack may be a sign that it is also time not to leave the security to the “sole security apparatus”, Tubiana said.

“It may be time [for Hamdok’s
government] to enlarge its support base, not the least to people of war-torn
peripheries in order to, as the information minister suggested, ‘dismantle the
old regime’,” he added.