Sudan Thwarts Military Coup Attempt

Sudanese authorities said they thwarted a coup attempt on Tuesday by a group of soldiers.

“All is under control. The revolution is victorious,'' Mohammed al-Fiky Suliman, a member of the ruling military-civilian council, wrote on Facebook.

The authorities accused plotters loyal to the country's longtime autocratic ruler Omar al-Bashir of a failed bid to derail the revolution that removed him from power in 2019. The plotters allegedly used tanks to close a bridge connecting Khartoum with Omdurman, just across the River Nile. They also reportedly tried to take control of state radio in Omdurman.

The Sudanese military have so far detained 21 officers and a number of soldiers in connection to the coup attempt. All locations affected by the attempt are now under army control.

Former leader al-Bashir came to power in 1989 when, as a brigadier general in the Sudanese Army, he led a group of officers in a military coup that ousted the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi after it began negotiations with rebels in the south.

Sudan is now ruled by a joint civilian and military government that faces towering economic and security challenges.

Suliman called on the Sudanese to protect the transition to democracy.