ISTANBUL

Kamil Idris was sworn in as Sudan's new prime minister on Saturday in the presence of Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the Sovereignty Council.

On May 19, al-Burhan issued a constitutional decree, appointing Idris as prime minister.

According to Sudanese news agency SUNA, Idris took the oath of office in front of al-Burhan, accompanied by the Secretary-General of the Sovereign Council, Lieutenant General Mohamed Al-Ghali Ali Youssef, and the head of the judiciary in the Red Sea State, who represented the Chief Justice.

Idris is a politician with a PhD in international law from the Graduate Institute of International Studies at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. He was also a presidential candidate in the 2010 election.

Before Idris' appointment, Sudan's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Dafallah Al-Haj Youssef, held the positions of minister of Cabinet affairs and prime minister caretaker.

Burhan established a transitional government in April 2019, following a military coup that deposed President Omar al-Bashir. The Transitional Sovereignty Council succeeded the government in August of that year, and the Sovereign Council took over in November 2021.

Since April 15, 2023, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group has been battling army forces for control of Sudan, resulting in thousands of deaths and one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Over 20,000 people have been killed, with an additional 15 million displaced, a​​ccording to the UN and local authorities.

Research from US scholars, however, estimates the death toll at around 130,000.​​​​​​​