KHARTOUM, May 1 (NNN-XINHUA) — Sudan’s military leader Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan named Dafallah Al-Haj Ali as acting prime minister and cabinet affairs minister on Wednesday, the ruling Transitional Sovereign Council (TSC) announced.
Al-Burhan, who heads the TSC, also appointed veteran diplomat Omer Mohamed Ahmed Siddiq as foreign minister, according to an official statement.
The prime minister’s office had been vacant since civilian leader Abdalla Hamdok resigned in January 2022 following a military coup led by Al-Burhan in October 2021.
The coup saw Hamdok and senior officials briefly detained before his reinstatement under a fragile power-sharing deal. Hamdok stepped down weeks later, warning in a televised address that Sudan faced a “dangerous turning point” as protests against military rule raged.
Osman Hussein had served as acting prime minister since Hamdok’s resignation, but his transitional authority remained limited under military oversight.
In February, Burhan outlined plans for a new “caretaker government” made up of independent figures aligned with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). The SAF has been embroiled in a two-year conflict with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which erupted on April 15, 2023.
Al-Haj Ali has served as Sudan’s ambassador to several countries and as foreign ministry undersecretary in 2021. Siddiq, the incoming foreign minister, joined the diplomatic corps in 1980 and has held ambassadorial positions in Germany and Britain.
The ongoing conflict between the SAF and RSF has killed tens of thousands, displaced over 15 million people, and left Sudan facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, according to the United Nations. The country’s healthcare system has collapsed, and UN agencies warn that Sudan is on the brink of famine. Accurate casualty figures are difficult to verify, with war monitors estimating the death toll between 30,000 and 150,000. — NNN-XINHUA
