KHARTOUM: Sudan halted and contained an attempted coup on Tuesday, a member of the country’s ruling Sovereign Council said shortly after state media reports.
Early on Tuesday morning, both state radio and television interrupted usual programming and were broadcasting patriotic songs as hundreds of troops deployed in the streets of the capital Khartoum.
Sovereign Council spokesman Mohammed El Faky Suleiman urged the Sudanese to “rise up and defend your country and the transition” in a Facebook post.
He said that the situation had been contained and that suspects would shortly be interrogated. He said the army will issue a statement shortly.
Sudan said on Tuesday it has foiled an attempted coup, according to state radio and television.
A top government source told AFP the plotters had attempted to take over the state media building but “they failed”.
The building, located in Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman, has routinely been the first target of the two dozen or more coup attempts since independence in 1956.
A Sudanese military source told The National that a general in the armoured brigade had planned to enter the state media building to broadcast an announcement of a coup but was prevented by other elements in the military.
There were few other details of the incident and the Sudanese military source said it comes after months of rumours about a planned coup.
“Such rumours are being recycled every now and then to destabilize the state building,” the military source said.
Sudan’s military ousted and detained long-time autocrat Omar Al Bashir in April 2019 after months of street protests against his 29-year rule.
