A prominent army general on Wednesday said Sudan’s ruling military council is willing to hand power to a democratically elected government as soon as possible.
“We got tired,” Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, deputy leader of the ruling military council, told Egypt’s state newspaper Al Ahram. “We want to hand over power today not tomorrow.”
The military council has been in talks with the protest and opposition alliance group for the formation of a new council that will oversee a three-year transition to democracy. The talks between the two sides were adjourned in the early hours of Tuesday, and no new date set has yet been for their resumption.
However, Dagalo, also widely known as Hemedti and leads Sudan’s feared paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), said the military, just the people of Sudan, is also waiting for a solution.
“Members of the military council are not politicians and we are waiting for the government to be formed,” he said.
Dagalo added that judicial proceedings are going on against the detained former president and some allies.
“Until now we have arrested 25 members of the regime figures and we are preparing the files for their charges,” he said.
On Tuesday, the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) threatened to go on a general strike, saying the military is keen in leading the transition and keeping a military majority on the council.
A clip of Dagalo was widely circulated on social media on late Tuesday which showed him suggesting that those who go on strike could lose their jobs.
In response to the video clip, the protesters posted photos posing and carrying banners that read “Hemedti, come and fire me!”.
Some protesters even accused Dagalo’s RSF of shooting bullets at protestors last week, when several of them were killed and dozens got injured. The military, however, denied the same.
