Who is Abdalla Hamdok, Sudan Leader Ousted in Coup

Until a military coup in Sudan, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok had the daunting task of trying to liberalize his country and lead it to democracy after three decades of dictatorship, while revitalizing its battered economy and normalizing relations with the world.

On Monday evening, his whereabouts remained unknown.

Mr. Hamdok, 65, an economist by profession, had spent much of his career working in international institutions. But in August 2019, he joined a three-year transitional government that was formed after a revolution that overthrew the dictator Omar Hassan al-Bashir and left more than 100 Sudanese dead.

At the outset, the opposition coalition, Force of Freedom and Change, and the army’s Transitional Military Council agreed to govern jointly, laying a groundwork for transition to a fully civilian government and democratic elections in 2022. But in recent weeks, there were numerous signs that the army was unwilling to relinquish power, and expose itself to investigation of abuses during the Bashir regime.

Last year, Mr. Hamdok survived an assassination attempt in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital. “We paid a hefty price for this revolution for a better tomorrow and for sustainable peace,” he wrote on Twitter after the attack. “Our revolution should always be guarded by its peacefulness.”