What’s behind the military coup in Sudan? | Start Here

General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has seized control in Sudan. He’s kicked out Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and imposed a state of emergency. What’s the backstory? #AJStartHere with Sandra Gathmann explains.

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let’s talk about the coup in sudan

breaking news out of sedan where the

military has arrested several civilian

ministers and officials thousands of

people have taken to the streets to

protest against monday’s military coup

this guy general abdel fattah al-buran

has taken control and kicked out the

prime minister

people are really angry they’re back on

the streets like they were two years ago

that’s when they brought down a

president they blamed for 30 years of

oppression

so what’s going on who’s who in all of

this and where does sudan go from here

okay first let’s wind things back and

talk about omar al-bashir he took power

in a military coup in 1989 and ruled

sudan for the next 30 years but two

years ago people finally turned on him

[Applause]

women young people sudanese from across

the country had had enough

and when it became clear that

al-bashir’s days were numbered the army

which had propped him up for so long

turned on him too

and he was out

[Music]

but it wasn’t quite the people’s victory

that all those protesters had wanted

because the army seized power and

replaced bashir with something called

the transitional military council the

tmc

so as far as the protesters were

concerned the revolution wasn’t over

[Applause]

people they came

they

set up their tents and they just refused

to leave in front of the army

headquarters and their demands was very

clear that we want the military to hand

in the government to the civilians

and we want to move towards

democracy

and we want to move towards peace but

there was nothing peaceful about what

happened next live now to the sudanese

capital khartoum that is the scene

[Music]

more than a hundred people were killed

and what became known as the cartoon

massacre on towards his attack the

protesters with live ammunition it was a

horrific situation people bodies were

thrown into the nile women and men were

sexually assaulted and raped but still

the protesters kept up the pressure and

it worked eventually the military agreed

to share power

so the military leaders the tmc made a

deal with the group that basically

represented the protesters that’s the

ffc the forces of freedom and change

they agreed to share power for 39 months

in a new transitional government and

then hold elections both sides had seats

on a joint committee called the

sovereign council that was led by

general abdel fattah al-burhan remember

he’s the guy who just led the coup there

was also a civilian cabinet led by prime

minister abdullah hamduk

now for a while it looked like sudan was

on track and transitioning towards

democracy but that transition was

completely derailed by what happened in

late october when general alberhan

decided to seize power

he dissolved the sovereign council

pushed out the prime minister and

declared a state of emergency it’s a

naked

brutal power grab what he is trying to

do

is to tear up the aspirations of the

sudanese people as expressed in the 2019

revolution okay but why now

well that whole power sharing

arrangement was on pretty shaky ground

from the start the military was were

never comfortable

with sharing power with the civilians so

the grudge was there having two parts of

the governments that are not actually in

agreement

you know in terms of their political

agenda in terms of their ultimate goals

has been extremely problematic so that’s

the context a major rivalry between the

two sides that was just getting worse

and worse but there was something else

going on too a looming deadline for

general alberhan to step down as

chairman of the sovereign council

some people reckon that also helps to

explain the timing of this coupe you are

four weeks before moran was was supposed

to hand over

his chair to a civilian man that’s why

he decided to turn the tables against

everyone and stepping down would have

put the civilian side in a stronger

position to make some big moves like

handing over the former president omar

al-bashir to the international criminal

court he’s facing charges linked to the

conflict in darfur a conflict that some

of those military leaders like abraham

were involved in too

or another big move pushing ahead with a

proper investigation into the military’s

role in the cartoon massacre they were

never really going to investigate

themselves enough for the massacres of

june 2019 the military has full control

now so what does that mean for sudan

well for the economy it’s definitely bad

sudan was on its way to getting 50

billion dollars in debt relief and there

were promises of even more international

aid

but most of that was tied to sudan’s

democratic transition and now that

that’s in doubt so is the money we have

had

debt rescheduling debt relief the

lifting of the state sponsors of terror

designation the beginnings of economic

normalization and that can be credited

to the civilian leadership and

especially to to abdullah doc now there

is no chance that the united states the

european union the world bank etc are

going to come in and and say oh we don’t

mind having

the democratic transition torn up now

general alberhan actually says he’s

still committed to that transition he

said the whole reason he took control

was to correct the path of the

revolution as he put it and that the

military was forced to act because of

all the political infighting

he says he’s going to set up a

technocratic government and hold

elections in 2023 but people just aren’t

buying it this is all yeah yeah window

dressing just

to negate the fact that

this is a military regime and so for

many in sudan it’s feeling like 2019 all

over again

we can’t predict what might happen next

in sudan several people have already

been killed in the protest that followed

the latest coup and there’s definitely a

lot of fear

but there’s also some hope the idea that

people power has changed things before

and it might again

the people in the street the people who

manage to start the civil disobedience

without any central leadership but

basically their faith in their right to

have a government that is held

accountable to them and that tells me

that there’s just no way we’re going to

have a military ruling in the long term

[Music]

you