Major Hashem al Atta, who, last night overthrew the Sudanese regime of his former comrade-in-arms, President Jaffar el Numeiry, in a second bloodless coup is a communist. Maj. Atta to-day [Cairo, July 20] cancelled a government ban on four communist organisations, representing the power base of the Sudanese Communist Party. The four groups were dissolved last February by the Numeiry regime, said Omdurman Radio. Contrary to earlier reports that Major General Numeiry was flown to exile in neighbouring United Arab Republic, the Iraqi News Agency said he was under arrest at Army Headquarters in Khartoum. The new rulers to-day formed a seven-man Revolutionary Council and consolidated their hold on Africa’s largest country. The chairmanship of the Revolutionary Council went to Colonel Babikr el Noor Osman, a former Vice-Prime Minister who was dismissed in a major Government shake-up last November, along with Maj. Atta and the former Interior Minister, Maj. Osman Hamdalla, who is also included in the Council.
