Relations between the Sudanese military and the country’s civilian government have been extremely tense in recent months, and the military feared the loss of influence, leading to a coup. Such reasons for the recent events in the East African country were named by Gunnar Sørby, an expert on Sudan and former director of the Christian Mikelsen Institute in Bergen (Norway), in a commentary to Lente.ru.
According to the Africanist, the military elite played a decisive role in determining the country’s foreign policy, in addition, they control large companies with large economic resources. Naturally, the fear of losing influence pushed the military towards a coup. At the same time, Serbyo did not rule out that the organizers of the military coup receive support from other regional powers, in particular from Egypt.
“But this could put Sudan in a very difficult position, because then the country will not receive the promised international assistance from Western countries, including the United States. In addition, measures to help the country in writing off the international debt, which is very large, may be curtailed, ”the specialist warned.
Serbyo noted that the future of Sudan is uncertain, and the shooting of protesters could lead to a very dramatic outcome. “The coup participants promise free and fair elections in July 2023, but we cannot take their promises on faith,” the expert emphasized.
On October 25, the Sovereign Council military arrested Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Hamduk. In addition to him, four ministers were detained – communications, information, finance and industry, as well as the governor of Khartoum Ayman Nimr and the representative of the Sovereign Council Muhammad al-Faki.
Following the arrest of Sudanese civilian leaders, massive protests against the coup began in the country’s capital, Khartoum. Tens of thousands of local residents took to the streets. In response, the military opened fire on the demonstrators, as a result of which 12 people were injured.
After the coup, a state of emergency was declared throughout the country. The transitional military Sovereign Council and the interim government of the Sudan, which were established after the previous coup and functioned in parallel, were also dissolved. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who led the Sovereign Council, announced that the army under his leadership had taken full power into their own hands. According to the general, these two authorities had to be liquidated because they constantly fought with each other and did not contribute to the end of the transition period, which threatened the country’s security.
Burkhan also pledged that the military would hand over leadership of Sudan to the civilian government after elections to be held in 2023.
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