The announcement comes on the back of escalating tensions between the civilian elements of both the government and the transitional sovereign council on the one side and the military. The Prime Minister and a few of ministers from his cabinet have been abducted by the military and are being held in an undisclosed location. The announcement and the declared state of emergency signals a threat to civic space and will likely reverse the gains and improvement in civic space witnessed since the December 2018 revolution that ended 30 years of authoritarian and military rule under the former dictator Omar Al Bashir.