Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in the context of List of heads of state of Sudan

The Government of Sudan is the federal provisional government created by the Constitution of Sudan having executive, parliamentary, and the judicial branches. Previously, a president was head of state, head of government, and commander-in-chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces in a de jure multi-party system. Legislative power was officially vested in both the government and in the two houses – the National Assembly (lower) and the Council of States (upper) – of the bicameral National Legislature. The judiciary is independent and obtained by the Constitutional Court.

However, following the Second Sudanese Civil War and the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan was widely recognized as a totalitarian state where all effective political power was held by President Omar al-Bashir and his National Congress Party (NCP). However, al-Bashir and the NCP were ousted in a military coup on April 11, 2019. The government of Sudan was then led by the Transitional Military Council (TMC). On 20 August 2019, the TMC dissolved, giving its authority over to the Transitional Sovereignty Council, who were planned to govern for 39 months until 2022, in the process of transitioning to democracy. However, the Sovereignty Council and the Sudanese government were dissolved in October 2021, when General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan seized power in a coup d'état, dissolved the Sovereignty Council, and reconstituted it the following month with new membership, keeping himself as chairman.

Since 15 April 2023, there has been an active civil war in Sudan between two rival factions of the country's military government. The conflict involves the internationally recognized government controlled by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and consisting of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Republican Guard; and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by General Hemedti, who leads the broader Janjaweed coalition. Several smaller armed groups have also taken part. Fighting began on 15 April 2023 after a power struggle within the military government that had taken power following the October 2021 coup. The conflict has caused nearly 12 million people to be forcibly displaced, both inside Sudan and across its borders, making it one of the largest displacement crises in recent history.

Fighting was largely concentrated in the capital, Khartoum, where the conflict began with the Battle of Khartoum, and in the Darfur region. Many civilians in Darfur have been reported dead as part of the Masalit genocide, which have been described as ethnic cleansing or genocide. Sudan has been described as facing the world's worst humanitarian crisis; nearly 25 million people are experiencing extreme hunger according to UN estimates. On 7 January 2025, the United States said it had determined that the RSF and allied militias committed genocide.

The Transitional Military Council (TMC) was the military junta governing Sudan that was established on 11 April 2019, after the 2019 Sudanese coup d'état that took place during the Sudanese Revolution, and was formally headed by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Inspector of the Sudanese Armed Forces, after Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf resigned as leader one day following the coup.

The TMC and the Forces of Freedom and Change alliance (FFC) signed a political agreement on 17 July. On 4 August, a constitutional declaration, which followed up on the 17 July agreement, was completed. The agreements provided for the transfer of power to a new body known as the Sovereignty Council and to other transitional state bodies.

The Transitional Sovereignty Council (Arabic: مجلس السيادة الإنتقالي, romanized: Majlis al-Siyādah al-Intiqālī) is the internationally recognised collective head of state of Sudan, formed on 21 August 2019, by the August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration. The initial council was dissolved by its Chairman Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in the October 2021 Sudanese coup d'état and reconstituted the following month with new membership, effectively changing it from a unity government to a military junta.

Under Article 10.(b) of the Draft Constitutional Declaration, it is composed of five civilians chosen by the Forces of Freedom and Change alliance (FFC), five military representatives chosen by the Transitional Military Council (TMC), and a civilian selected by agreement between the FFC and TMC. The chair for the first 21 months was to be a military member, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and for the remaining 18 months the chair was to be a civilian member, under Article 10.(c). The original Sovereignty Council was mostly male, with only two female members: Aisha Musa el-Said and Raja Nicola. Under Article 19 of the Draft Constitutional Declaration, the Sovereignty Council members are ineligible to run in the election scheduled to follow the transition period.

On 25 October 2021, the Sudanese military, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, took control of the Government of Sudan in a military coup. At least five senior government figures were initially detained. Civilian Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok refused to declare support for the coup and on 25 October called for popular resistance; he was confined to house arrest on 26 October. Internet outages were reported. Later the same day, the Sovereignty Council was dissolved, a state of emergency was put in place, and a majority of the Hamdok Cabinet and a number of pro-government supporters were arrested. As of 5 November 2021, the list of those detained included "government ministers, members of political parties, lawyers, civil society activists, journalists, human rights defenders, and protest leaders", who were held in secret locations, without access to their families or lawyers.

Key civilian groups including the Sudanese Professionals Association and Forces of Freedom and Change called for civil disobedience and refusal to cooperate with the coup organisers. Protests started on 25 and 26 October against the coup and at least 10 civilians were reported as being killed and over 140 injured by the military during the first day of protests. Protests and strikes continued, with 200,000 to 2,000,000 protestors participating around Sudan on 30 October and 15 shot dead by security forces in protests organised by the Sudanese resistance committees on 17 November.

Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo Musa (born c. 1973-1975), commonly known by the mononym Hemedti, is a Sudanese military officer and politician who is serving as the chairman of the presidential council of the Government of Peace and Unity since 2025. He is also the military head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), one of the two main factions involved in the Sudanese civil war along with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

A Janjaweed chief from the Rizeigat tribe in Darfur, Hemedti was one of the warlords leading the Janjaweed in the war in Darfur and is accused by several organizations to be one of the perpetrators of the Darfur genocide (2003–2005). Hemedti later joined the RSF and has served as its military head since 2013. He took part in the revolution against President Omar al-Bashir, and, following the 2019 Sudanese coup d'état, became the deputy head of the Transitional Military Council (TMC). On 21 August 2019, the TMC transferred power to the civilian–military Transitional Sovereignty Council, of which Hemedti is a member. As of 2019, Hemedti was considered one of the richest people in Sudan via his company, al-Junaid, which had a wide array of business interests including investment, mining, transport, car rental, iron and steel. On behalf of the TMC, Hemedti signed a political agreement on 17 July 2019 and the Draft Constitutional Declaration on 4 August 2019, together with Ahmed Rabee on behalf of the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC), as major steps in the 2019 Sudanese transition to democracy. Under Article 19 of the Draft Constitutional Declaration, Hemedti and the other Sovereignty Council members would be ineligible to run in the next Sudanese general election. In September 2019, Hemedti helped negotiate a peace deal between groups in armed conflict in Port Sudan.

The Khartoum massacre occurred on 3 June 2019, when the armed forces of the Sudanese Transitional Military Council, headed by the Lieutenant-General Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the immediate successor organisation to the Janjaweed militia, used heavy gunfire and tear gas to disperse a sit-in by protestors in Khartoum, killing over 100 people. It has been difficult to assess the actual number killed. At least forty bodies were thrown in the River Nile. Hundreds of unarmed civilians were injured, hundreds more were arrested, many families were terrorised in their home estates across Sudan, and the RSF raped more than 70 women and men. The Internet was almost completely blocked in Sudan in the days following the massacre, making it difficult to estimate the number of victims.

In October 2019, during the 39-month planned transition to democracy, an official Khartoum massacre investigation commission was created as required under Article 7. (16) of the Sudanese August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration, under the authority of transition period Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. The commission is led by human rights lawyer Nabil Adib or Nabil Adib Abdalla and with no female members, to the objection of the No to Oppression against Women Initiative.