The Sudanese military staged a coup d'état and placed the Transitional Government's Prime Minister under house arrest, complicating the situation in the "Golden Nation" once again.
| Author: Zheng Aotian
Huang Peizhao, special correspondent of this magazine in Egypt
| Editor: Ah Ye
| Editor: Laulinger
Once again, the Sudan was thrust into the forefront of international public opinion as a result of the coup d'état.
On October 25, local time, the Sudanese army suddenly put the Transitional Government Prime Minister Abdullah Hamduk under house arrest. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the military leader and chairman of the SovereignTy Committee of the State Authority, immediately declared a national emergency, dissolved the Sovereign Commission and the Transitional Government, dismissed the governors of the states and established a separate Government.
Mr. Burhan said the military had overthrown Prime Minister Hamduk's government to avoid civil war, and Hamduk had not been harmed. Hamduk was originally in his own home. However, we feared he would be in danger, so he was accommodated in my house. ”
Hamduk's supporters did not buy it, taking to the streets of Khartoum, the sultan's capital, in protest. In front of the Sudanese Armed Forces command, soldiers clashed with protesters and opened fire. At present, the conflict has resulted in 7 deaths and 150 injuries.
A few months ago, the Sudan had longed for peace and reconciliation, but now it is once again mired in a spiral of conflict.
The "Golden Nation" suffered from turmoil
In the hours following the coup, the military arrested several members of the Transitional Government cabinet and the governor of Khartoum State, and took control of important news organizations such as Sudanese state television. National networks and mobile phone signals were disrupted, Khartoum International Airport was grounded, and some foreign traffic arteries were controlled by the military.
• Smoke billows from Khartoum, Sudan, on October 25. Image source: Xinhua News Agency.
On October 26, Burhan held a press conference saying: "The political division of the Transitional Government threatens Sudanese national security. The Sudan is at a critical juncture, and the only way forward is unity and unity of position. He said Hamduk's opinion was "hijacked" by a group and placed Hamdulk in his home for security reasons.
However, Hamduk said in a final statement that he refused to cooperate with the coup parties, accused "the joint military forces of being the coup plotters" and called on the public to "defend the revolution in a peaceful manner" and called on the public to "defend the revolution in a peaceful manner." Supporters of Hamduk took to the streets of Khartoum in protest, demanding that the military restore the transitional government. People also rushed from other places to the capital to participate in the protests, and the Sudanese Medical Association, banking associations and others announced strikes.
According to the Associated Press, sudan's prime minister's office issued a statement saying that Hamduke and his wife have been allowed to return home on the 26th local time, and other government officials are still in detention.
• Prime Minister Hamduk of the Transitional Government of Sudan (front row, fifth from left) poses with cabinet members in khartoum, the capital, on September 8, 2019. Image source: Xinhua News Agency.
To understand the coup, one needs to look at the history of Sudan.
Sultan was called Nubia, meaning gold. As early as 1500 BC, the Kingdom of Nubia was known for its wealth and proficiency in commerce. In the long years that followed, it was influenced by ancient Egyptian, Christian and Islamic civilizations, and became one of the most historical and cultural regions in Africa.
In the 19th century, Sudan became a British colony. In the face of the rising resistance of the Sudanese people, the British colonists had to end their colonial rule, but they also resorted to the usual trick of adopting a "divide and rule" approach to the originally integrated North and South Sudan, completing the cultural, economic, linguistic and religious division of North and South Sudan before Sudan's independence, laying a time bomb on Sudanese society.
Sudan has been at war for 39 years in 50 years, from independence in 1955 to the end of the Second Sudanese Civil War in 2005, two large-scale civil wars that have killed more than 2 million people, displaced more than 4 million people, and made Sudan one of the poorest countries in the world.
In 1989, The Sudanese soldier Al-Bashir staged a military coup and became Sudan's president in 1993. During his reign, Sudan discovered and exploited a large number of oil fields, and the profits from oil exports led sudan's economy to lead the way in Africa. But the North-South conflict in Sudan remains intense. In 2011, South Sudan, which owns most of Sudan's oil reserves, declared its independence, and Sudan, which had lost a lot of oil resources, was in economic difficulty.
In 2019, Bashir spoke at the National Assembly.
In April 2019, amid a combination of economic hardship and political division, the Sudanese military staged a coup d'état to overthrow Bashir. In August of that year, after months of negotiations and compromises, Sudan announced the creation of a sovereign commission composed of civilian and military representatives as "collective heads of state". Subsequently, the commission appointed Hamduk, who had served in several international organizations, as Prime Minister.
Under Hamduk's leadership, progress has been made in the Sudanese peace process. In October 2020, with the support of the African Union, the Sudanese government signed a peace agreement with rebels in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, declaring an end to 17 years of hostilities. The Sudan seems one step closer to the lasting peace that the population expects.
However, the coup d'état of 25 October complicated the situation again.
The contradiction between civilian officials and soldiers
In this coup, Prime Minister Hamduk of the Transitional Government of the Sudan and Burhan, the leader of the Sudanese military, are undoubtedly the most notable.
Since Sudan's independence, there have been many contradictions between civilian officials and military personnel. Historically, Sudanese presidents have mostly come from the military background, while prime ministers have mostly been civilians. Some analysts said that there are contradictions in concepts and interests between the two sides, which affects the stability of Sudan's political situation.
Hamduk, who is under house arrest, is the Sultan's civilian elite.
He graduated from Khartoum, Sudan's top university, and then went on to study at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, where he received a PhD in economics. Upon his return in 1981, he began working in the Sudanese Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.
Since 1990, Hamduk has held key positions in international organizations such as the International Labour Organization, the African Development Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. He is a business card of the Sultans internationally.
Prime Minister Hamduk of the Transitional Government of Sudan. Image source: Xinhua News Agency.
After Bashir was overthrown by a coup in 2019, Hamduk was appointed prime minister of the transitional government by a sovereign council on the condition that he would not participate in Sudan's elections scheduled for 2022.
As an economist, Hamduke plans to make agriculture the backbone of Sudan's future economy, hoping to reduce its dependence on oil exports by promoting cash crops in Sudan. At the same time, he also supports the development of women's rights in Sudan and promotes legislation in sudan's parliament to prohibit cruel female circumcision.
Politically, Hamduke has been working to promote national reconciliation in Sudan, with the Juba Peace Agreement signed in October 2020 being one of his major achievements. He also improved Sudan's relations with the United States during his tenure. In 1993, the U.S. government accused bashir's government of supporting "terrorist organizations" and included Sudan in the list of "terrorist supporters." After Hamduk's visit to the United States in 2019, the two countries decided to re-send ambassadors to each other.
At the time, then-U.S. President Donald Trump demanded $335 million in compensation from Sudan for the attacks on U.S. embassies in African countries in 1998 (U.S. claims the Bashir administration was linked to these attacks by extremist groups). Despite the state debt, Hamduk agreed. In his view, if the country can be removed from the "terrorist list" in exchange, it will be conducive to seeking external debt relief.
However, during Hamduk's administration, Sudan's economic situation remained grim, with inflation running high for months, reaching 360 percent in September, rising unemployment and rising poverty, all of which sparked nationwide protests.
In addition, the long-standing ethnic conflict in eastern and western Sudan has not been alleviated, with several violent clashes erupting from early January last year to June this year. Recently, there was a massive protest by the Beja tribe, one of the largest tribes in northeastern Sudan, criticizing the military's power grab and the government's incompetence. Demonstrators also blocked Port Sudan, closed oil pipelines and prevented the import of civilian goods from the port, worsening the economic situation. Raja, a member of Egypt's Foreign Affairs Commission, said the Sudanese government's slow response to the beja tribe's protests was one of the reasons for the dissatisfaction of the military group.
Due to his long tenure in international organizations, Hamduk has shallow political roots in Sudan. This is in contrast to military leader Bulhan.
Burhan, leader of the Sudanese military.
Unlike Hamduk, who graduated from prestigious universities, Bulhan came from the grassroots. Born in 1960 to a rural Muslim family in North Sudan, he enlisted in the Sudanese military academy, fought in the civil war, and faced the cruelty of the battlefield. After Bashir came to power, Burhan rose from junior officer to chief of the army general staff and became a central figure in the officer group.
In a coup d'état in April 2019, Bulhan met with two other senior military officers to ask for his resignation and an investigation. Shortly after Al-Bashir announced his resignation, Burhan became Chairman of the Sudanese Transitional Military Council, becoming Sudan's de facto national leader. After the establishment of the SovereignTy Commission, Burhan chaired it on behalf of the military.
Burhan has repeatedly said sudan needs a civilian government, promising that the political transition period will not exceed 2 years. After the October 25 coup, Burhan said Sudan's democratic transition process would continue, with plans to hand over power to an elected civilian government after the July 2023 elections. But many Sudanese still fear that Burhan will become a "military dictator."
The American role is in the spotlight
As of now, the Sudanese military still controls the capital Khartoum. However, some government officials remain loyal to Hamduk. Sudan's Ministry of Information said on its Facebook page that the transitional constitution stipulates that only the prime minister has the power to declare a state of emergency, and Hamduk remains the legitimate prime minister of the transitional government.
The international community has expressed its opposition to regime change through a coup d'état. On October 25, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said in a social media post that all government officials, including Sudan's Transitional Government Prime Minister Hamduk, must be released immediately to respect the difficult political transition.
In response to a question from a Russian news agency reporter about the coup in Sudan, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said, "China is concerned about the latest developments in the situation in Sudan and calls on all relevant parties in Sudan to resolve differences through dialogue and maintain national peace and stability." ”
The Chinese Embassy in Sudan issued an emergency security reminder as soon as possible after the coup d'état in Sudan, requiring Chinese-funded institutions in Sudan to immediately activate the security emergency mechanism, concentrate the staff of the agency in the station, and temporarily suspend work and production. The Embassy reminds Chinese citizens in the Soviet Union to take safety precautions and reserve emergency materials, avoid going out or going to public places, and maintain smooth contact with the Embassy.
People in sudan's capital set fires to the streets in protest. Image source: Overseas Network.
Behind the changes in the coup d'état in Sudan, the shadow of U.S. influence looms.
On the day of the Coup in Sudan, feltman, the United States Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, had just left Sudan. Two days earlier, he had met with Sudanese military and civilian leaders, saying the trip was intended to "resolve the growing dispute between the country's military and civilian leaders."
The U.S. Embassy in Sudan said the day before the coup that Feldman told Sudanese officials that U.S. support would depend on their compliance with the transitional regime set forth in the Constitutional Declaration and the Juba Peace Agreement. Bulhan promised at the time that he would work with Hamduk on the issues.
After the Sudanese coup, Feltman tweeted that the United States was "deeply shocked by reports of the military taking over the transitional government" and "completely unacceptable." He added that "any change in the transitional government by force would put U.S. aid at risk." U.S. Foreign Ministry spokesman Price said at a news conference that the United States did not foresee a coup d'état in Sudan and had demanded that the Sudanese military immediately release all detained government officials. He also said the United States had seized $700 million in aid that was supposed to be destined for Sudan.
The actions of the United States have aroused various discussions from the outside world. Hana, an expert at the International Crisis Group, said the timing of these coups — especially after these meetings — raised a great deal of questioning and prompted some to question the role of the United States in Sudan.
Niu Song, a researcher at the Middle East Research Institute of Shanghai Chinese University, analyzed that the existence of the US factor "on the one hand deepens the Sudanese military's insecurity in the domestic political game, on the other hand, it will also cause obvious constraints to the Sudanese military after the coup." While sudan is unlikely to remain under military rule for long, there is still some way to go to establish a full-fledged civilian government.