• Fifteen other people, including journalists and politicians who like Hamdok live abroad, face similar charges

PORT SUDAN: Sudan’s prosecution accused on Wednesday former prime minister Abdalla Hamdok of “inciting war against the state” and other charges that could carry the death penalty, according to state television.

The prosecutor’s office is loyal to military chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, whose regular armed forces have been at war since April 2023 with paramilitary leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

Fifteen other people, including journalists and politicians who like Hamdok live abroad, face similar charges such as “violating the constitution.”

Hamdok, Sudan’s most prominent civilian politician, was the country’s first premier in a fragile transition following a popular uprising after decades under Omar Al-Bashir’s rule.

Hamdok was placed under house arrest after an October 2021 coup by former allies Dagalo and Burhan.

After a brief reinstatement, Hamdok resigned in January 2022 and fled to Abu Dhabi.

He has since re-emerged as part of a new coalition known as Taqadum.

Sudan’s war has claimed thousands of lives and displaced more than 8.5 million people, according to the UN.

Hamdok has been in talks for several months with Sudanese and regional figures in a bid to put an end to the war.

These efforts have seen Dagalo, who heads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), embrace Hamdok.

Dagalo, a former camel and sheep trader, rose to prominence under Bashir, who unleashed Janjaweed militias after an ethnic minority rebellion began in Darfur in 2003.

The militia campaign led to war crime charges against Bashir and others.

When security personnel attacked pro-democracy demonstrators in Khartoum in June 2019 after Bashir’s overthrow, it was the RSF, which emerged from the Janjaweed militia, that witnesses said was at the forefront of the bloodshed, killing at least 128 people.

However, Dagalo’s embrace of civilian partner Hamdok offers the chance to gain international legitimacy, analysts have told AFP.

Tom Perriello, a former congressman recently named to a new position of US special envoy for Sudan, had said that talks to end the Sudan war could start around April 18.