The leader of Sudan's military coup said the military will appoint a new prime minister within a week, as international condemnation of the takeover builds. 

After seizing power earlier this week, Sudan’s military dissolved the transitional government and detained Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and other ministers. The deposed leader and his wife were allowed to return to their home in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on Tuesday. 

The country’s top general, Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, is promising elections in July 2023. He told the Russian Sputnik news agency on Friday that the next premier will be a technocrat, but that the military has yet to draw up a list of candidates. Burhan said the military will name a prime minister in “a couple of days or within a week at the latest.” 

"The previous prime minister was elected through consensus between political and military forces. Now there are no political forces, so we have a patriotic duty to lead the people and help them in the transition period until elections are held,” Burhan told the Russian agency. “We will choose a prime minister who will belong to technocrats.”