Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok on Thursday announced the formation of his cabinet, the first since veteran leader Omar al-Bashir’s overthrow in April, reported Reuters.
The new government was formed as part of a three-year power-sharing agreement between the military and civilian representatives and protest groups.
“(The new government) will start its work immediately in a harmonious and collective way,” Hamdok told a news conference in Khartoum on Thursday evening.
“Today, we start a new phase in our history. … We are seeking the establishment of a national project and the restructure of the Sudanese state,” he said.
The Sudanese prime minister announced the names of 18 ministers in the new Cabinet and said he would name two more later. He delayed the cabinet announcement for a few days as he mulled over the nominees proposed by the protest coalition group that led the months-long protests against Bashir and also the army generals who ousted him in April.
The 18-member cabinet comprises of four women, including Asmaa Abdalla as the first woman to serve as foreign minister in Sudanese history. He also picked Ibrahim Elbadawi, a former World Bank economist, to lead the Finance Ministry and Madani Abbas Madani, a leader of the civilian coalition, as a minister of industry and trade.
The military nominated Lt. Gen. Gamal Omar, who was a member of the Transitional Military Council that took over power after Bashir’s ouster, as defense minister and Idriss Traifi as interior minister. General Jamal Omar was appointed as defense minister.
Hamdok’s government has a lot of challenges to face including the big task of finding billions in funding to cover the country’s bill for importing basic goods like fuel and flour, security and peacemaking in regions affected by insurgencies, reducing military spending that accounts for as much as 70 percent of the budget, and negotiating Sudan’s removal from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.
