WASHINGTON

The US called on Sudan's military to release without delay Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok amid an ongoing putsch.

“We reject the actions by the military and call for the immediate release of the prime minister,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One, further expressing deep alarm over the coup.

Sudan's military arrested Hamdok and members of the civilian government in the capital Khartoum early Monday.

The Ministry of Culture and Information said the military arrested Hamdok after he refused to support what it described as a "coup".

Later Monday, Gen. Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, the head of Sudan's ruling military council, declared a state of emergency and dissolved the Sovereign Council, which was created to run the country after the ouster of long-serving President Omar al-Bashir in 2019.

After a failed military coup last month, deep tensions between the military and the civilian administration erupted in Sudan amid recent rival protests in Khartoum.

Before the dissolution, Sudan was administered by the Sovereign Council of military and civilian authorities, which oversaw the transition period until elections slated for 2023, as part of a precarious power-sharing pact between the military and the Forces for Freedom and Change coalition.