Sudan can regain world support if ‘legitimacy’ restored – Blinken

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Sudan’s military Wednesday that the country stood to regain access to much-needed international aid if it restored the “legitimacy” of the civilian government following last month’s coup.

“It’s vital that the transition regain the legitimacy that it had,” Blinken told a joint news conference in Nairobi as he began a three-nation tour of Africa. 

“If the military puts this train back on its tracks and does what’s necessary, I think the support that has been very strong from the international community can resume.”

The United States has suspended some $700 million in assistance to Sudan in response to the coup, which halted a democratic transition that followed the 2019 toppling of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir.

Top general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan declared a state of emergency, ousted the government and detained the civilian leadership.

The army’s power grab has derailed a transition to full civilian rule and sparked international condemnation as well as widespread protests, including on Wednesday when thousands took to the streets in defiance of a crackdown that has already claimed 24 lives.

Several rallies broke out across Khartoum, even though telephone lines were cut and internet services have been disrupted since the October 25 putsch, AFP journalists reported.

Security forces fired tear gas on the protesters, causing several injuries, witnesses said.

Burhan insists the military’s move “was not a coup” but a push to “rectify the course of the transition”.

US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee has been shuttling between the generals and the ousted civilian government in a bid to broker a way out of the crisis.