After a bloody night in Khartoum, demonstrators continued to march through the streets on Tuesday, protesting against the coup in which the military leadership dissolved the civilian government and arrested leading politicians on Monday morning. Protesters shouted: “No to military rule” and “Civil governance is the choice of the people”. Eyewitnesses confirmed that there were several dead and dozens of wounded, as reported by the BBC and other broadcasters. Apparently soldiers fired live ammunition into the crowd. The Sudanese Doctors Committee spoke of three dead and 80 injured.
In the face of the military seizure of power by force, Joe Biden’s US government said it is now withholding $ 700 million in economic aid to Sudan. The US announced that it would review “all relations” with Khartoum if the country does not return to the path of democracy. The United Nations and the European Union have also condemned the coup and the dissolution of the government. the country threatens to drift into isolation again internationally, after having made many efforts in recent months to no longer be perceived as a state that promotes war and terror.
It all started early Monday morning when there was a suspicious blackout in Khartoum. The Internet was gone, the cellular network was disrupted, even in the fixed-line networks only a little worked. Apparently no one came in or out of the Sudanese capital by air, the airport remained closed, reported local broadcasters. And it finally became known from circles of the Prime Minister’s family that soldiers had brought Abdalla Hamdok into their power. It was initially unclear where they were holding the head of government.
There was now nothing more to be heard from Prime Minister Hamdok. Only a short statement from the Ministry of Information, which was supposedly still standing by him on Monday, got outside via Facebook. It said that Hamdok had been kidnapped and that he was calling for non-violent protests. The people should “defend the revolution”. Other members of the transitional cabinet, which has ruled the crisis state on the Nile since 2019, were also apparently arrested.
Day one of the coup in Khartoum was initially confusing. Because who moved troops and arrested politicians was not yet apparent at that time. Despite the disrupted networks, videos were soon to be seen of angry Sudanese, some waving flags, others drummed with clubs on empty water containers. Behind them, columns of black smoke rose from burning car tires.
“We have to protect our people,” says the general. But from whom?
The events drove tens of thousands onto the streets, observers in Khartoum interpreted this as an angry mass protest against the coup. The Al Jazeera television station panned the morning repeatedly to broadcast on Sudanese state television, in the expectation that a man in uniform would soon appear there to explain what was going on. Instead, for a long time only idyllic images of palm trees and buildings on the Nile were shown, accompanied by patriotic songs. The chaos on the streets was completely hidden.
Around noon the picture changed, a mustached man in camouflage and a beret appeared and read a statement: General Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan, Chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces. He declared a state of emergency and declared that the military must protect the security of the nation. He declared the entire cabinet of the transitional government dissolved, and no group in Sudan should ever again ignore the will of the people. “We have to protect our people,” he says. He left it open who exactly was threatening security. It only became clear that many civilian forces have now been disempowered.
The strong man: General Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan during his televised address on Monday. He declared a state of emergency for the whole of Sudan and disbanded all authorities that were involved in the democratization process.
(Photo: Sudan TV / AFP)
Eyewitnesses reported that troops and armored vehicles were occupying junctions in the city of Khartoum and important bridges. The protests of the coup opponents spread to other cities in the country during the day.
Tensions had increased in Sudan for weeks. And when a group of demonstrators marched in front of the presidential palace a few days ago and loudly demanded that the military be taken over, this did not look like a spontaneous protest; on the contrary, it seemed to some like the carefully prepared prelude to a renewed takeover of power by the military. There were then large counter-demonstrations for more democracy.
There had already been an attempt at a coup in September, at that time allegedly forces from the environment of the former dictator Omar al-Bashir were behind it. General Burhan now emphasized that he was sticking to the goal of elections and that he wanted to ensure that the people achieve their goals. He justified the assumption of power by saying that a struggle had developed between the factions in the transition system that was endangering the peace and security of the country.
Deposed and disappeared: It is said that Sudan’s previous Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok was kidnapped in the wake of the coup.
(Photo: Sarah Meyssonnier / Reuters)
For three decades, Sudan was ruled by a clique led by the dictator Omar al-Bashir, they sparked many conflicts and are charged with war crimes and serious human rights violations. After civil protests in 2018 and 2019 triggered the disempowerment of Bashir, factions of the military shared power with civilian politicians. But both sides claim to be the guardians of the revolution that brought down the criminal regime. Mistrust and rivalries made working together difficult.
The hybrid government should pave the way for further democratization, with elections in 2023. At the same time, it worked to free Khartoum from international isolation and to mobilize economic aid to get the economic misery under control. Millions of Sudanese are jobless and living in miserable circumstances, and rising food prices are worsening their misery.