Withdrawal of the Prime Minister: Don’t abandon Sudan now

Sudan’s Prime Minister Hamdok has resignedly given up. He no longer wanted to be a fig leaf in the military. Now it is important that the international community does not abandon the democracy movement in the country.

It is the sad consequence of a failed bearer of hope: Abdullah Hamdok, the head of government of Sudan, is stepping down, clearing the way. But for whom? Hardly for a representative of freedom and democracy. The military has a firm grip on Sudan.

The only real ruler is military chief General Abdel Fattah al Burhan. Hamdok, the failed one, was in the end nothing more than a sad fig leaf, a democratic alibi without any power in the state, the plaything of the military.

Protesters don’t want to give up

The balance of power in Sudan is a slap in the face for the millions of Sudanese who take to the streets week after week for freedom, democracy and human rights. They demand, fight and die for the fact that their country finally embarks on a democratic course after the overthrow of long-term ruler Omar al Bashir.

You don’t want to give up, they say. They struggle for air in the face of more and more tear gas volleys with which the military responds – it’s still just tear gas. Individual demonstrators are said to have been killed by targeted head shots. No, the smarter prime minister was unable to prevent his country from sliding into disaster, as he himself said in his resignation speech.

And he pushed for a democratic process again. With these quasi last words as prime minister, he is right. The Sudanese have a right to determine the fate of their country themselves, to get democracy, freedom of the press, freedom of expression, human rights. Now it is up to us – the international community – to look.

Sanctions against a civil war

Hand on heart: Who is interested in Sudan? Somewhere in Africa – meaningless to us? Hardly: We cannot be indifferent when a people is trampled underfoot, when military rulers do everything to put down the desire for democracy.

Sudan concerns us, as Hamdok’s resignation reminds us of. Only pressure from the international community, sanctions and negotiations can now prevent us in the world from having a new civil war or another military dictatorship. And for that, Sudan needs one thing above all: attention. From all of us.