Xinxin Fang ’24
Sudan’s military took control of the country in a coup d’état against the government on October 25th and later placed the Sudanese Prime Minister under house arrest. While military leaders emphasize that maintaining stability was the main reason for the coup, civilians have recently engaged in large-scale protests against the junta, or the group in power; recently, as many as 39 casualties have been confirmed in the ensuing conflicts as mentioned in Al Jazeera.
The coup, led by Lt. Gen Abdelfattah al-Burhan, Head of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), resulted in the dissolution of Sudan’s previous government. According to Al Jazeera, after the 2019 Sudanese Revolution overthrew the alleged war criminal and dictator Omar al-Bashir in a military coup, leading generals agreed to create a transitional civilian government that would aid Sudan’s official transition to democracy over a two year period. The generals affirmed that they had “no ambitions to hold the reins of power” following al-Bashir’s removal but continued to strongly enforce strict rules, including a 10 PM curfew.
According to France 24 and Reuters, in the 2021 coup, al-Burhan announced that they were simply taking over to intervene in political quarrels and prevent a civil war, and they planned to set democratic election dates for July of 2023. EA students and staff, however, are doubtful of al-Burhan’s claims. Christopher Row, Upper School History teacher, believes that “[al-Burhan’s words] are the language of generals who aspire to be dictators. I’d be very surprised if a general who led a coup d’état against a civilian government would hand over power to a democratic government.”
Collin Schlitt ‘24 agrees, adding that “[Lt. Gen al-Burhan] should’ve followed the agreement of the civilians and the military working together until they could do an election in 2022… While I think it’s possible [that al-Burhan will support democracy], I’m unsure because it seems unnecessary for him to overthrow the previous civilian government.”
In addition to capturing the Prime Minister and dissolving the government, Sudan’s new junta has also shut down internet functionality country-wide, cut down power lines in certain regions, and used live ammunition to quell protests, per France 24. Sudan’s citizens, in the capital of Khartoum or elsewhere, are facing increasing struggles as a result of these facility losses. Reuters’ Michael Georgy adds, “Banks and cash machines were also closed. Mobile phone apps widely used for money transfers could not be used, and locals are enraged at the lack of jobs, food, services, and money.”
The largest concern, however, is the increasing death toll. The Associated Press reports that Wednesday, November 17th marked the highest daily death toll since the start of the coup at the end of October, with 15 people dead and hundreds more wounded among the thousands of anti-coup protesters. Bobby Albani ‘22 believes that these are all signs “the Sudanese government is most likely not going to follow through with their many lofty promises,” and they will instead continue along their current path past the 2023 democracy deadline.
Students at EA are also concerned about the precedent that this coup sets, and the effect it could have on the future of the US. Karen Xiao ‘22 notes, “As a result of growing social inequalities and general societal conflict, authoritarianism has been on the rise in recent years. Countries embrace authoritarianism because it is seen as a solution to chaos and uncertainty, and the recent coup in Sudan is another situation that fits this trend.” Maya Gambhir ‘22 agrees, adding, “We’ve already seen examples of this in the US, with some aspects of the previous president’s administration. It gives us all a cause to worry.”
Photo courtesy of nytimes.com
Sources:
- https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/11/17/sudan-authorities-close-bridges-ahead-of-mass-anti-coup-protests
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Sudanese_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-aljazeeraapril12-14 (info on 2019 revolution in sudan)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_al-Bashir (omar al-bashir is a bad person)
- https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-africa-sudan-arrests-omar-al-bashir-c8d027c0a9e250fcb5a595bdc987d282
- https://www.vox.com/2021/10/29/22751437/sudan-coup-protests-al-burhan-hamdok
- https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/un-human-rights-commissioner-calls-sudan-s-coup-deeply-disturbing-as-human-rights-are-violated (comments from UN human rights commissioner)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_2021_Sudanese_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#cite_note-Dabanga_UNHRC_deeply_disturbing-8 (info on 2021 coup d’état the one we’re writing abt)