Sudan, a powder keg of discontent

The simmering discontent in Sudan is on the boil once again and the unrest does not seem to end. Tens of thousands of people rallied in towns across Sudan on Monday, seeking to keep the pressure on military leaders who staged a coup in October but later reinstated Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok following mass protests.

The demonstrations were the latest in a series planned by neighbourhood resistance committees against the military.

The rallies come three years after the first stirrings of the uprising that toppled the long-ruling Omar Al Bashir in 2019. His removal led to a political transition with the military and civilians sharing power.

Bashir ruled over the country for decades with an iron fist, propped up by the military. The pressure of months of massive protests finally forced the military to remove and imprison him.

But then something totally alarming happened. Soon after his removal, the military seized power – for itself.

Crackdowns on protests in the weeks following the coup left at least 44 people dead, many from gunshots fired by security forces, according to medics aligned with the protest movement. On Monday the public prosecutor announced the formation of a committee to investigate violations during the protests.

One banner carried by protesters in Bahri on Monday read: “You can cut down all the flowers but you can’t end the spring.”

Hamdok is due to appoint a cabinet of technocrats under his deal with the military, a task that is complicated by opposition to the agreement from political parties and protesters.

Security forces fired tear gas on Monday to disperse demonstrators in Sudan’s capital.

The coup threw out of gear a fragile planned transition to democratic rule.

Hamdok was reinstated last month amid international pressure in a deal that calls for an independent technocratic Cabinet under the military oversight led by him. The agreement included the release of government officials and politicians detained since the coup.

The Nov. 21 deal, however, was rejected by the pro-democracy movement, which insists power be handed over to a civilian government to lead the transition.  Footage circulated on social media purportedly showed demonstrators marching in different locations in Khartoum and its sister city Omdurman.

The US Embassy in Khartoum said in a tweet: “We stand with the Sudanese people as they seek freedom, peace, and justice in today’s demonstrations, and welcome their government’s commitment to protection of peaceful protesters.”

The prime minister has appointed new acting governors of the country’s provinces to replace those named by coup leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the ruling Sovereign Council, after the coup.

According to one report, Western powers including the United States and the  European Union have condemned the coup, but a lot depends on much leverage they accord Sudan’s military. The country is in need of international aid to get through its economic crisis.

Once Africa’s largest nation, Sudan under Bashir was prominent on the world stage in the 1990s and 2000s for all the wrong reasons.

It was the scene of a long civil war between the mostly Christian south and the Muslim north. In the 2000s, it was most known for the brutal repression of an uprising in its western Darfur region, when Bashir himself was indicted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and genocide.