COUP D'ÉTAT

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.