Sudan’s new Prime Minister, Abdalla Hamdok, took his oath of office last week. Widespread popular protest had compelled the country’s military to force the previous ruler Omar al-Bashir to step down from power in April, and a group that formed from the protests called the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) spent several months negotiating with the Sudanese military transitional council to implement a framework for a civilian-led government and democratic elections. The FFC chose Hamdok, a prominent economist, to lead the country and to install a 20-member cabinet. He has authority over every position except the ministers of defense and the interior, who will be chosen by the transitional military council.

Hamdok, in his swearing-in speech, promised to address the long-term economic crisis that has plagued Sudan with high rates of inflation and unemployment, and which ultimately lit the fuse for the protests against al-Bashir in the first place. We’ll chat about the tasks ahead of Hamdok with Amal Hassan Fadlalla, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan and the author of a recent book on Sudan, Branding Humanity: Competing Narratives of Rights, Violence, and Global Citizenship.