A collected image for Kamil Idris

KHARTOUM, May 19, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Sudan's army chief and de facto leader
Abdel Fattah al-Burhan appointed on Monday former UN official Kamil Idris as
the country's new prime minister, more than two years into a brutal war.

Idris, a career diplomat and past presidential candidate, was the director
general of the United Nations' World Intellectual Property Organisation and
has also served in Sudan's permanent mission to the UN.

"The chairman of the sovereignty council issued a constitutional decree
appointing Kamil El-Tayeb Idris Abdelhafiz as prime minister," a statement
from Sudan's ruling Transitional Sovereignty Council read.

In 2010, Idris ran in the presidential elections against longtime Islamist-
military ruler Omar al-Bashir.

Since April 2023, the war in Sudan has pitted Burhan's army forces against
the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by his former deputy Mohamed
Hamdan Daglo.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands, displaced 13 million and created
what the United Nations describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Idris replaces veteran diplomat Dafallah al-Haj Ali, who was appointed by
Burhan at the end of April and served less than three weeks as acting prime
minister.

Burhan had earlier said that he would form a technocratic wartime government
to help "complete what remains of our military objectives, which is
liberating Sudan from these rebels".

In April, the RSF announced it would form a rival government, a few weeks
after signing a charter in Kenya with a coalition of military and political
allies.

The move has raised international fears that Sudan would be permanently
divided between the two sides, both of which have been accused of war
atrocities.

The conflict has already carved up Sudan, with the army holding the north,
east and centre while the RSF dominates nearly all of Darfur and, with its
allies, parts of the south.