Sudan PM detained in military takeover

The African Union chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat has called for the release of Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdulla Hamdok and other officials arrested in an apparent coup.

Protesters in Sudan have blocked three main bridges in the capital Khartoum, an eyewitness in the city told CNN.

One of the blockaded bridges connects Omdurman city to the capital and leads to the presidential palace. Security forces fired tear gas near the bridge briefly to disperse the protesters, the eyewitness said.

Security forces, including members of the military and a powerful paramilitary unit called the Rapid Support Force, were patrolling the streets, the eyewitness added.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he is watching the unfolding events in Sudan and urged all stakeholders to return to the country’s democratic transition process. 

“Following with utmost concern ongoing events in #Sudan. The EU calls on all stakeholders and regional partners to put back on track the transition process,” Borrell said on Twitter.

The internet services in Sudan are now “severely disrupted with further cuts observed,” according to an update from internet monitor NetBlocks.

The service disruption from 4:30 am UTC (12:30 am ET) manifested "in a telecommunications blackout for many," NetBlocks said in an updated tweet on Monday.

Earlier, NetBlocks had reported an internet disruption with “national connectivity at 34% of ordinary levels” in Sudan.

A source in Khartoum confirmed to CNN that internet services remain unavailable and calls are not going through for some.

Observers on social media Monday raised alarm that the internet disruption was taking place as demonstrators gathered at the military headquarters in Khartoum.

The last time the internet was cut off in Sudan was amid a violent crackdown on protesters on June 3, 2019, when security forces killed more than 100 people gathered at a sit-in near the army headquarters. The internet shutdown continued for weeks, with activists saying that it was part of efforts by the ruling military council to roll back gains by demonstrators that had forced former president Omar al-Bashir.

Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and his wife have been arrested and taken to an undisclosed location, the prime minister's economic advisor Adam Hireka told CNN.

CNN had previously reported that Hamdok was under house arrest by “military forces," according to a Ministry of Information statement posted on Facebook.

“I am deeply concerned about reports of an ongoing coup and attempts to undermine Sudan’s political transition,” the United Nation’s Special Representative in the country, Volker Perthes, said in a statement on Monday.

Perthes added that the “reported detentions of the Prime Minister, government officials, and politicians are unacceptable."

He called for the “security forces to immediately release those who have been unlawfully detained or placed under house arrest.”

The Special Representative for Sudan also asked all parties to “exercise utmost restraint” and called for them to “return to dialogue” in order to “restore the constitutional order.”

His statement was tweeted by the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission Sudan in English and in Arabic on Monday.

Military forces have stormed Sudan’s state broadcaster in Omdurman, near the capital Khartoum, and are detaining workers, the Ministry of Information said on Facebook.