Sudan woke up Monday morning to the drastic news of an apparent military coup. The army arrested Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok and other officials, shut down the internet, and declared a state of emergency.
The coup leader, Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, appeared on national television to blame what happened on the insufficient politics of the civilian politicians and assured the people that the army is working for the best of the nation.
Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok has been detained and put under house arrest, and his whereabouts are unknown up till now, and once the senior civilian leaders within the transitional government were arrested before him, the prime minister’s office urged protestors to go out in the streets. “We call on the Sudanese people to protest using all peaceful means possible… to take back their revolution from the thieves,” Hamdok’s office stated.
The great Sudanese Revolution
In the Sudanese Revolution of 2019, the peaceful protestors managed to oust their dictator Omar Al-Bashir. On April 11th, 2019, the Transitional Military Council was the military junta governing Sudan, headed by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. The military handed authority to another power body that is represented by the eleven member Sovereignty Council, which is formed of five military figures including Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and six civilian figures. A constitutional declaration stated that the leader of this council would be Al-Burhan for the first 21 months, then to give it back to a civilian figure of the council for the remaining 18 months.
A month before the military was supposed to give up the leadership chair, Al-Burhan conducted the apparent coup and arrested the civilian ruling figures.
Protestors flooded the streets of the Sudanese capital, Al-Khartoum, demanding the return of the civilian government and the assurance of the democratic elections that was expected to be held in November, 2022.
Workers, doctors, and other citizens refused to work under the current circumstances under military rule, and protestors gathering all over the capital are being targeted by tear gas from the military in order to disperse them.
A betrayal of the revolution
“Military arrests of civilian leaders were a betrayal of the revolution, the transition, and the Sudanese people,” UK’s special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, Robert Fairweather tweeted.
“France condemns the attempted coup in Sudan in the strongest terms. I express our support for the Sudanese transitional government and call for the immediate release and safety of the prime minister and civilian leaders,” said French president Emmanuel Macron on Twitter.