FBI in Sudan to help probe assassination attempt

 assassination attempt on Sudan PM Abdalla Hamdok

KHARTOUM, March 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A team from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has arrived in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, to help with enquiries into a failed assassination attempt against the prime minister.

Abdalla Hamdok’s convoy was attacked with explosives and gunfire on Monday.

It is not yet clear who was behind the attack and the arrival of the three US investigators follows a call from the Sudanese authorities for foreign assistance.

Sudanese culture and information minister Faisal Mohammed Saleh said the FBI team “arrived Wednesday morning and will join Sudanese investigators”.

The American investigators will bring relevant “expertise and techniques for this kind of case”, Saleh said.

Sudan’s security and defence council met Monday evening and called for foreign assistance.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack.

Sudanese authorities have made several arrests, including of foreigners, Saleh said, without giving further detail.

On Tuesday, the interior ministry said the blast was caused by an improvised explosive device placed on the route taken by Hamdok’s convoy.

After the fall of longstanding ruler Omar al-Bashir in April 2019, Hamdok, a seasoned economist, took the reins of a transitional government last August.

He heads a sovereign council composed of civilian and military figures, tasked with overseeing Sudan’s transition to civilian rule over three years, with the eventual goal of free elections.