Protests Break Out in Sudan

Abdel Fattah al-Burhan leads Sudan’s Sovereign Council  (Wikimedia Commons).

Protests have rocked Sudan since October 15 as pro- and anti-military demonstrators took to the streets of Khartoum. Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok called the protests the “most dangerous” crisis the country has faced since a military coup overthrew long-term Sudanese President Omar al-Bahir in April 2019. Since then, a joint military-civilian Sovereign Council has governed Sudan. 

Protests calling for another military coup to end the Sovereign Council first broke out on October 15 after weeks of discontent. “We need a military government,” one protestor exclaimed. “The current government has failed to bring us justice and equality.” 

Recent reforms by Hamdok, a former economist, have slashed subsidies in the country while inflation continues to rise, currently hovering around 400 percent. Unrelated protests in Eastern Sudan have closed the country’s primary port, Port Sudan, and have only added to the stress on Sudan’s economy.

Military leaders, including the head of the Sovereign Council General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, have pinned the country’s economic turmoil and resulting protests on partisan squabbles within the civilian government. However, Hamdok fought back against Burhan’s statements, saying that there was “no excuse” for a coup in the country, no matter its economic performance. Hamdok claimed that Burhan’s words were a “direct threat” to the country’s planned transition to full civilian rule. 

While Burhan still leads the Sovereign Council, his tenure—which began in August 2019—was only supposed to last 21 months before handing the position over to a civilian leader in May 2021. However, a peace agreement signed by military and civilian leaders in October reset the clock on the transition. Further resets have delayed the elections until 2023. There is no certainty as to whether or not the timeline will be further extended. 

Unrest in the country is not just limited to this week. The military detained 21 officers last month after an attempted coup. Burhan denounced the coup attempt, but Hamdok believes Burhan is not doing enough to reform the country’s military, whose role in the national government is supposed to be temporary and part of the ultimate transition to democratic rule. Burhan, meanwhile, has called for reforms to the Forces For Freedom and Change, the coalition whose leaders comprise the civilian wing of the Sovereign Council.

 In a speech on October 15, Hamdok called for military reforms, as well as the creation of a transitional legislature. While Hamdok has served as prime minister for over two years, Sudan still doesn’t have a legislature and is primarily governed by the Sovereign Council. 

After the pro-military protests, pro-civilian protests took place on October 21 outside of the presidential palace in Khartoum. While anti-Hamdok protestors camped outside, both sides urged their protestors to be peaceful. Nonetheless, violence broke out, and the local police deployed tear gas. 37 people were injured in the protest. 

As divisions widen between the civilian and military halves of the Sovereign Council, with over a year until the country’s first free election since the fall of Bashir, Hamdok and Burhan are faced with reconciling a Sovereign Council whose cracks are only continuing to grow.