The Sudanese Communist Party issued an urgent appeal for international solidarity after a military coup took place in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on October 25. The party leadership also appealed to "all the forces that stand with the civil authority to declare a political strike and civil disobedience until this coup is defeated".
Fathi Al-Fadhl, the Communist Party's official spokesman, said in an audio message from Khartoum that a campaign of arrests by the army and security forces began after the coup. He added that a number of ministers and politicians were arrested, and that the residence of Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok was surrounded by tanks.
According to social media reports, after refusing to endorse the coup, the army arrested Hamdok, moving him to unknown location.
A press statement from the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Sudanese Communist Party said that "a military coup took place this morning, led by [General Abdel Fattah] Al-Burhan and his group, and a number of political leaders were arrested." It called upon "all the forces that stand with the civil authority to declare a political strike and civil disobedience until this coup is defeated."
A Sydney-based Sudanese activist told Green Left that people are on the streets opposing the coup. "Phone access has been cut inside the country and there is very limited internet access."
The coup, led by General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, has declared a state of emergency and suspended several articles of the constitution.
It also dissolved the Sovereign Council and the cabinet, ended the mandate of the state’s governors and dismissed deputy ministers and assigned the duties of ministers to the directors general.
It ordered a freeze on the work of the country’s removal of empowerment corruption and public funds recovery committee (ERC). The ERC is a transitional body created by the Sovereign Council, to dismantle the political and legal institutions allied with the former dictatorship of Omar al-Bashir. It has also recovered companies, real estate and assets managed by members of the former regime and their collaborators. The ERC recently attempted to dismiss a number of members of the judiciary because of their ties to the ousted regime of al-Bashir. The decision was nullified by Sudan’s High Court on October 6.
In response to the coup, the African Union called for “the release of all arrested political leaders and the necessary strict respect of human rights” and for an immediate resumption of dialogue between civilians and the military.
The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), which played a leading role in the 2019 uprising against the al-Bashir dictatorship, said: "This coup is a continuation of the Security Forces of the National Congress Party and its militias, which began on 11 April, 2019 with the aim of blocking the path of the December Revolution and aborting it.
"The massacres of the Sudanese people’s sit-ins in the Military Head Quarters and the states was another episode of its episodes, and the courageous people's determination forced them to dodge the miserable settlement until they can pounce again on the Glorious December Revolution.
"They did not understand that the December Revolution is now rooted in the consciousness and will of the Sudanese people, and that the guardian of this revolution are the people who will defeat today coup and their struggles will not stop without the transition to a complete civilian rule.
"The means of our revolutionary people are the trialed tools of the peaceful resistance in the streets, political strike, and comprehensive civil disobedience.
"We appeal again to the resistance committees in all districts and all revolutionary political, professional, rights defender’s forces in all the cities and villages of Sudan to come together and occupy the streets and barricade them, and to continue all forms of civil disobedience and complete strike until we defeat the coup reaching to what our people deserve under the flags of Freedom, Justice and Peace."
As at October 26, 12 people have been killed and more than 100 injured.
[This article was updated on October 26.]