Sudan In Crisis
Thousands of people poured into the
streets of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, after Sudan's military seized power
desolving the transitional government after troops arrested the prime minister
Abdalla Hamdok including cabinet members. Governments and human rights groups
demand the immediate release of Sudanese civilian political leaders and condemn
apparent coup attempt.
Student had been ruled by an uneasy
alliance between the military and civilian groups since 2019. The takeover
comes more than two years after protestors forced the ouster of long time
autocrat Omar al-Bashir and just weeks before the military was supposed to hand
the leadership of the council that runs the country over to civilians. However,
military leaders have been worried by the investigations ordered by Hamdok into
the military's role in violence and graft under al-Bashir. They also reportedly
feared that civilian rule could deny them their significant involvement in the
gold industry.
Sudan has suffered other coups since
gaining its independence from Britain and Egypt in 1956. Al-bashir came to
power in 1989 in one such take over, which removed the country's last elected
government. Bashir was toppled and gained after months of street protests. A
political transitions agreed after his ouster has seen Sudan emerge from its
isolation under three decades of rule by Bashir and has meant to lead to
elections by the end of 2023.
Sudan is in a volatile region. Several
of its neighbours, including Ethiopia, Chad and South Sudan have been affected
by political upheavals and conflict. The recent turmoil brings the UN security
council meeting on the group in Sudan for speedy recovery of peace. Rather than
harbinger of continued praetorianism, these events have sometimes acted as
signposts on the road to lasting civilian rule. Hopefully - years from now - we
will be able to look back at Sudan's recent coup conspiracies not through the
lens of coups but rather through the lens of a successful democratic
transitions.
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