| | | Date: Aug 23, 2019 | | Source: The Daily Star |  |  |  |
| | Outgoing Sudan military council chief sworn in as leader | Reuters
KHARTOUM: Gen. Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, the outgoing head of Sudan’s military council, was sworn in Wednesday as leader of the new Sovereign Council that will run the country for three years until an election after decades of autocratic rule.
The makeup of the 11-member Sovereign Council that will run the country for the transition period, superseding the military council which has been disbanded, was completed Tuesday, comprising six civilian and five military figures.
Nine members of the council were sworn in about two hours after Burhan took the oath Wednesday. The final member, Mohammad al-Hasan al-Taishi, will be sworn in at a later, unspecified date, state news agency SUNA said.
However, some opposition members and analysts expressed concern that the power-sharing deal might fall short of expectations in a country where the military, backed by Islamists, has dominated for decades.
“With the start of the transition period, we have entered the most complex phase, the phase of building and reform,” said Al-Rashed Saeed, spokesperson for the Sudanese Professionals Association, a key part of the Forces for Freedom and Change coalition that negotiated with the military council.
Among the military men sworn in were Gen. Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti, outgoing deputy head of the military council. He has become a growing political force in Sudan and some analysts say he hopes to become president. He heads the Rapid Support Forces, a widely feared paramilitary group that stands accused of atrocities against civilians in the Darfur war.
Civilian representatives include mostly little-known figures, including Rajaa Nicola Abdel-Maseeh, a Christian, who was the civilian member jointly chosen by the military and the opposition coalition. |
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