Another coup d'état in sudan will go

Guangming Daily reporter in Cairo, Xiao Tianyi

In the early hours of 25 October, The Chairman of the Sudan's SovereignTy Committee, General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, staged a coup d'état in which the Prime Minister of the Transitional Government, Abdullah Hamduk, and senior officials such as the Minister of Industry, the Minister of Information and the Governor of Khartoum, were arrested and placed under house arrest at an unknown location. After the coup, Sudan's national network services were cut off, major roads and bridges connecting the capital Khartoum were blocked, and airports were shut down urgently.

Bulhan declared the dissolution of the government and the imposition of a state of national emergency. In his televised address, he said infighting, ambition and incitement to violence among politicians forced him to take action to protect national security. He said Sudan remained committed to abiding by "international agreements" and transitioning to civilian rule. He said a technocratic rule focused on the well-being of the people should be established, rather than partisan politics for personal gain. He plans to hold elections in July 2023.

Hamduk had reportedly been threatened with support for the coup, but he declined and called on people to take to the streets for "peaceful protests." After the coup, several civil society groups supporting the transitional government issued statements calling on people to march against the coup and "stop the army from stealing the fruits of peace." A live video on social networks showed thousands of protesters raising Sudanese flags on the road, lighting barricades and entering areas near the army's headquarters, with gunfire coming from time to time.

At the end of September, thousands of Sudanese rallied to call on the military to overthrow the transitional government.

The coup crisis has long been a precursor

Coups and demonstrations in Sudan are nothing new. Since the overthrow of the Al-Bashir government two years ago and the establishment of a transitional government, there have been differences between sudanese army and civilian leaders.

On 21 September, the Sudanese army announced the arrest of at least 21 officers who had attempted a coup d'état in the early hours of that day, alleging that they were attempting to overthrow the current government and restore Bashir. In a speech on the 23rd, Burhan pointed the finger at the civilian leaders of the transitional government, saying that the transitional government seeks private interests, "ignores the public welfare of citizens, and is busy competing for seats and dividing up power, providing an opportunity for a coup."

On September 24, protesters from the Beja tribe occupied and closed Port Sudan in eastern Sudan, blocking major roads in eastern Sudan and the capital Khartoum. The port is regarded as Sudan's most important import and export hub, not only as the center of Khartoum, but also as an important source of exports for several neighbouring countries that do not have seaports, such as South Sudan, Chad and Central Africa.

The Beja tribe set conditions for the suspension of protests and the reopening of roads and ports: the dissolution of the Transitional Government and the repeal of the Eastern Road Agreement. The Eastern Road Agreement, which provides for the distribution of resources and powers of the Eastern Regional and Transitional Government, said by the Beja people did not meet the expectations of the inhabitants of the region and was signed by representatives who did not represent eastern Sudan.

Raja, a member of the Egyptian Foreign Affairs Committee, said that the political framework for sudanese military attaches and civilian officials to govern the country together does not apply to the unstable situation in Sudan, where civilian officials are caught in partisan political strife and unable to use international aid to improve people's livelihoods and restore the economy, thus only contributing to the intensification of contradictions between the parties. He believes that the demonstrations in eastern Sudan are the direct "fuse" of this incident, because there are reports that the eastern tribes have conspired for independence, which is absolutely unacceptable to the Sudanese government and military. But civilian groups still wanted to whitewash Taiping, and negotiations with eastern tribes in early October stalled, forcing the army to regain power.

The U.S. mediation became a laughingstock

On October 23, Jeffrey Feltman, U.S. Envoy to the Horn of Africa, met with Burhan, chairman of the Sudan's SovereignTy Commission, and paramilitary commander Mohammed Hamdan Dagloo. But Feltman, who left Khartoum on the 25th, expressed "extreme shock" at the military coup on Twitter, saying that "the military takeover would violate Sudan's constitutional declaration and put U.S. aid at risk."

British Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, Robert Fairweather, said on Twitter that the military arrest of civilian leaders was "a betrayal of the revolution, the transition and the Sudanese people." The United Nations, the European Union and the League of Arab States are also deeply concerned about this.

On Twitter, discussions about the U.S. envoy's visit have become a hot topic. Netizens believe that Feltman hurriedly left Sudan during the coup, he must have known about the coup, but in the end he only issued a painless statement on Twitter, and was also concerned that "U.S. aid is at risk." Some netizens even jokingly called him a "special envoy for the coup", who was supposed to maintain peace, but watched the coup take place. It is worth mentioning that the United States has previously set a number of "indicators" for the Sudanese military to limit the power of the military, "help" Sudan's transition to democracy, and use this as a reason to remove Sudan from the list of "terrorist countries" and lift sanctions. Some netizens also believe that the United States is the driving force behind the Coup in Sudan, calling on the United States not to extend its black hand into Sudan again.

Raja believes that regardless of how things develop, the incident is another heavy blow to the regional and international image of the United States, comparable to "Afghanistan Incident 2.0". This shows that the United States' push for democracy in the region has completely bankrupted, and more seriously, the United States is not responsible for the resulting political turmoil.

(Guangming Daily Cairo, October 25)

Guangming Daily (12th edition, October 26, 2021)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily