November 4, Nairobi — General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the Sovereign Council and Sudanese army commander, appointed a new foreign minister and three others on Sunday in a cabinet reshuffle, according to state media reports.

Ambassador Ali Youssef Ahmed al-Sharif will be the new foreign minister, replacing Hussein Awad Ali, who had been appointed in April. Before retiring, Youssef had held many roles in Sudan’s foreign ministry, leading the Sudan-China Friendship Associations.

Khalid al-A’isir also became the new culture and information minister. He is based in London and known for his pro-Burhan support and media activity. Omar Bakhit has taken over as Minister of Religious Affairs and Endowments. Omar Ahmed Mohamed Ali Banfir was appointed trade and supply minister, a position which has been vacant since July.

The council did not state why the reshuffle had taken place. It comes at a time where there is currently increasing violence in Gezira state, Sudan’s capital Khartoum and North Darfur.

Burhan led a coup in October 2021 which ousted the civilian-led transitional government that had been formed in 2019, making him de facto head of state. In January 2022 he dismissed most civilian ministries and replaced them with undersecretaries.

Since the civil war began in April 2023, Burhan’s army-aligned government has been operating from the eastern city of Port Sudan. Earlier this year, economist Haitham Fathy told AFP that the Sudanese state “is completely absent from the scene.”