{"id":247592,"date":"2020-03-09T07:30:24","date_gmt":"2020-03-09T11:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=247592"},"modified":"2020-03-09T07:30:24","modified_gmt":"2020-03-09T11:30:24","slug":"sudans-pm-survives-assassination-attempt-in-capital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/03\/09\/sudans-pm-survives-assassination-attempt-in-capital\/","title":{"rendered":"Sudan’s PM survives assassination attempt in capital"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: Abdalla Hamdok at World Hydropower Congress 2017 (Photo By International Hydropower Association, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CAIRO — Sudan’s prime minister survived an assassination attempt Monday after an explosion went off near his convoy in the capital of Khartoum, Sudan’s state media said.<\/p>\n

Abdalla Hamdok’s office and his family confirmed he was safe following the explosion. Sudanese state TV said Hamdok, a longtime economist, was heading to the Cabinet’s offices when the attack took place, and that he was taken to a \u201csafe place.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attack highlighted the fragility of Sudan’s transition to civilian rule, almost a year after pro-democracy protesters forced the military to remove autocratic President Omar al-Bashir from power and replace him with a joint military-civilian government.<\/p>\n

However, military generals remain the de facto rulers of the country and have shown little willingness to hand over power to civilians.<\/p>\n

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, and it was unclear what type of device caused the explosion.<\/p>\n

Footage posted online showed two white, Japanese-made SUVs vehicles used by Sudan’s top officials parked on a street, damaged with widows broken. Another vehicle was badly damaged in the blast. Several dozen people were seen in the site of the attack, chanting: \u201cWith our blood and soul, we redeem you, Hamdok.\u201d<\/p>\n

The protest movement that led the uprising against al-Bashir called the blast a \u201cterrorist attack.\u201d The statement by the Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change called on people to take to the streets to \u201cshow our unity and cohesion … and protect the transitional authority.\u201d<\/p>\n

After months of negotiations, the military and the pro-democracy movement reached a power-sharing deal in August, at which point Hamdouk took office. The deal established a joint military-civilian, 11-member sovereign council to govern Sudan for the next three years.<\/p>\n

Prominent activist Khalid Omar, secretary general of the Sudanese Congress Party, said the attempt on Hamdouk’s life was a \u201cnew chapter in the conspiracy against the Sudanese revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monday’s blast came less than two months after an armed revolt from within Sudan’s security forces shut down the capital’s airport and left at least two people dead. The tense stand-off between the armed forces and rogue intelligence officers paralyzed street life in several parts of Khartoum, along with another western city.<\/p>\n

In 1989, al-Bashir came to power in an Islamist-backed military coup and imposed a strict interpretation of religion on its citizens, limiting personal freedoms. The country was an\u00a0international\u00a0pariah for its support of extreme Islamists.<\/p>\n

Sudan’s transitional authorities announced in February that they agreed to hand over al-Bashir to the\u00a0International\u00a0Criminal Court along with other former officials wanted by the ICC.<\/p>\n

Hamdok has confirmed the government will co-operate with the court’s efforts to prosecute those wanted for war crimes and genocide in connection with the Darfur conflict in Sudan in the 2000s.<\/p>\n

Sudan’s transitional government has also been under pressure to end wars with rebel groups as it seeks to rehabilitate the country’s battered economy, attract much-needed foreign aid and deliver the democracy it promises.<\/p>\n

Nearly a year after al-Bashir’s ouster, the country faces a dire economic crisis. Inflation stands at a staggering 60% and the unemployment rate was 22.1% in 2019, according to the\u00a0International\u00a0Monetary Fund. The government has said that 30% of Sudan’s young people, who make up more than half of the over 42 million population, are without jobs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CAIRO — Sudan’s prime minister survived an assassination attempt Monday after an explosion went off near his convoy in the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":247594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-samy-magdy","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247592"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247595,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247592\/revisions\/247595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}