Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok announces a new cabinet bringing in seven ex-rebel chiefs as ministers, following a peace deal in October aimed to end decades of war.
Veteran rebel leader and economist Gibril Ibrahim, of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) – which played a major role in the Darfur conflict – was appointed as Sudan’s new finance minister.
Hamdok dissolved the previous cabinet to make way for a more inclusive lineup in government.
Two ministers were selected from the military, with the remaining coming from the Forces for Freedom and Change group, which plays a key role in Sudanese politics.
The group was the driving force behind the anti-government protests that led to the April 2019 ouster of strongman Omar al-Bashir.
Hamdok named as foreign minister Mariam al-Sadiq al-Mahdi, daughter of Sudan’s last democratically elected prime minister, Sadiq al-Mahdi, who died aged 84 in November from a coronavirus infection.
