Sudan: Former Prime Minister wants fighting to stop

By Peter Ochieng

Former Sudan Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has appealed for immediate end to fighting in the country.

BBC reports that a power struggle between Sudan's army and paramilitaries caused fighting between armed factions in the capital Khartoum and other areas.

The powerful Rapid Support Forces (RSF) says it controls key sites in the capital but Sudan's leader, and head of the military has rejected the claim.

Hamdok took to Facebook to call for peace, as fighting continues.

"My first message is to General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and the leaders of the Sudanese military, and to Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, and the leaders of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The exchange of fire must stop immeditately, and the voice of reason must rule, everyone will lose, and there is no victory when it is atop the bodies of our people," he said.

Hamdok who served as Prime Minister from 2019 warned the Sudanese people against allowing "the drums of war to take over."

He was ousted in the October 2021 coup, before being reinstated a month later.

Hamdok resigned last year after long-running disagreements with the army.

The current situation is the latest case of instability since the toppling of Sudan's long-serving President Omar al-Bashir.

Bashir had been in power for nearly three decades, before he was confronted by months of street protests.

Army generals ousted him in April 2019.