SOLDIERS BLOCK INTERNET, DETAIN PRIME MINSTER, OTHER POLITICIANS IN APPARENT SUDAN COUP

Joint military forces detained Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok on Monday after he refused to support their "coup," the information ministry said other members of the transitional government have also been detained and taken to an anidentified location.

"After he refused to be a part of the coup, a force from the army detained Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and took him to an unidentified location," the ministry said in a statement on Facebook.

It added that civilian members of the transitional sovereign council and a number of ministers from the transitional government had also been detained by joint military forces.

The detentions came as tensions peaked between the military and civilian figures who shared power since August 2019 following the ouster of autocratic President Omar al-Bashir months earlier.

Internet services were cut across the country and the main roads and bridges connecting with the capital Khartoum were shattered, the information ministry said.

Dozens of demonstrators set car tyres on fire as they gathered on the streets of the capital to protest against the detentions, an AFP correspondent said.