Sudanese military dissolved the government. Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok and his wife were arrested, and their whereabouts are unknown.
The Sudanese military today put an end to a democratic transition of just over two years, during which they shared power with civilians in a unique experience in the Arab world, until a month ago the relationship between them was soured by an attempt coup plotter.
The Sudanese Prime Minister, Abdullah Hamdok, and his wife were arrested in the early hours of Monday at their home and their whereabouts are unknown, along with other ministers and civilian political representatives, as confirmed by the already dissolved Government.
A few hours after the arrests, the president of the Sovereign Council, the highest body of power in the transition process, General Abdelfatah al Burhan, dissolved the Council of Ministers headed by Hamdok and the Sovereign Council itself, which had been created in 2019 on the basis of to a constitutional document that governed the transition.
The roadmap, suspended
Al Burhan also suspended some articles of that transitory Constitution, which was signed in August 2019 by the military and civilians, and in which they laid the foundations for the distribution of power for 39 months until the holding of democratic elections, scheduled for the beginning of 2024.
The Army agreed to share power with the main political forces and civil groups that had participated in the popular revolt against the dictator Omar al Bashir, who was overthrown in April 2019 by his own comrades in arms after several months of protests in the streets.
Sudan, an African country torn by conflict
Although an agreement between the uniformed and civilians was not easy, they finally reached a satisfactory formula for both parties, which had worked until now and which had been considered exemplary by other Arab countries in which this distribution of power was impossible after the revolutions of 2011.
The Sovereign Council was made up of eleven members, five of them military and five other civilians, in addition to one selected by agreement of all parties, with a rotating presidency, which in the past more than two years was occupied by Al Burhan.
Growing tensions
Tensions between civilian and military leaders have been present in the transitional period, but that has not prevented the process from continuing its course, until last September there was a coup attempt that caused both parties to launch direct accusations and recriminations. , and sparked open conflict.
On September 21, the Army announced that it had aborted a coup by rebel soldiers and officers, which was attributed by Hamdok to “remnants” of the Al Bashir regime from within and outside the Armed Forces.
After the attempt, the prime minister said that it was necessary “to reform the military and security organs”, which provoked the anger of the military leaders and the interruption of communications between the two parties.
Hamdok had also indicated at the time that “preparations” had been made to create an environment conducive to the coup, such as the lack of security in the streets amid protests in some provinces of the country and shortages of basic products, in the framework of the prolonged Sudan is living in crisis.
Violence in the streets
The serious economic crisis was what motivated the protests against Al Bashir in December 2018, which led to his overthrow at the hands of the military in April 2019, after months of mobilizations in the streets throughout Sudan and especially in the capital. .
A military junta led by Al Burhan took over the reins of the country and demonstrations continued to pressure generals to cede power to civilians, including a camped out in front of the Armed Forces headquarters in Khartoum.
The protesters faced violence and repression by the military and security forces, who committed the largest massacre of the transition in the dismantling of that protest camp, which left at least 120 people dead and hundreds more injuries, according to the organization Human Rights Watch.
Just today the NGO for the defense of human rights has asked the security forces to “refrain from using lethal force” against the protesters who took to the streets of Khartoum since this morning in protest at the coup d’état, while the Dissolved government denounced that the military have shot at these citizens. (I)
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