Sudan Prime Minister resigns amid political deadlock 

Khartoum: Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has resigned amid political deadlock following a military coup that derailed the country’s fragile transition to democracy. 

In a televised speech late on Sunday, Hamdok, who signed a political agreement with the military in November, said a roundtable discussion is needed to reach a new deal. 

"I decided to give back the responsibility and announce my resignation as prime minister, and give a chance to another man or woman of this noble country to ... help it pass through what's left of the transitional period to a civilian democratic country," Abdalla said in his televised address. 

It is another blow to Sudan's fragile attempts at a transition to democratic rule after a popular uprising led to the overthrow of Sudan's long-term authoritarian President Omar al-Bashir in 2019. 

Hamdok— an economist and former United Nations official, became Prime Minister under a power-sharing agreement between the military and civilians following Bashir's overthrow.

Ousted and placed under house arrest by the military, he was reinstated on November 21 under an agreement with Army Chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, in a move rejected by Sudanese political and civil forces as an "attempt to legitimize the coup". 

Yesterday, Hamdok said he had tried in vain to forge a consensus between deeply divided factions that would have allowed for the completion of a peace process signed with some rebel groups in 2020, and the preparation of elections in 2023. 

On December 30, protests took place in several areas in the capital Khartoum, Kasala, and Port Sudan in the country's east, as well as the northern city of Atbara.

Sudanese called for democratic civilian rule and decried the political deal between the military and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.

Before military’s takeover, Sudan was administered by a sovereign council of military and civilian officials overseeing the transition period until elections in 2023 as part of a precarious power-sharing pact between the military and the Forces of Freedom and Change coalition