On Saturday October 16 several hundred people poured into the streets of Khartoum in Sudan to demand the end of the transitional government and the establishment of a military authority, complaining about the serious economic crisis and asking the armed forces to take control of the situation and restore order in the country.
The demonstrations follow what on October 12 was in fact a call for the resignation of the civilian government by the military authority of the country, chaired by General Abdel Fattah al Burhan, who denounced the failure of the policies of the civilian government chaired by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and called for a broader participation of parties in the leadership of the government.
The Sudanese military exploits in this way the discontent generated by the economic crisis, trying to force the outcome in the direction of a political crisis ideally oriented to the establishment of an executive led exclusively by the military, with the participation of civilian political forces that would endorse their role.
The crisis between civilian and military authorities of the country is only instrumentally built on the serious economic situation of Sudan, however, sinking its roots in the unresolved dilemma of the ambitions of of the armed forces. In spite of reassurances about the willingness to transfer power to a duly elected civilian government, in fact, Sudan’s armed forces not only do not intend – or are unable – to resolve the problem of the autonomy of the many militias created at the time of Omar al Bashir’s dictatorship, but above all do not intend to relinquish control of large sectors of the local economy and de facto political power.
The differences between the civilian and military authorities of the transitional government have thus become deeper and deeper over the last few months, leading to protests and riots ably exploited by the military wing through the ramified network of connivance at its disposal in the country, which also includes numerous organizations of sympathizers of the former regime.
The coup attempt in recent weeks, the blockade of the port of Port Sudan and the unrest in the capital in recent days are just the latest of the deliberately organized manoeuvres to strike at the credibility of the civilian government and demand its resignation.
Skyrocketing tension in Sudan between civilian government and Armed Forces
Tensions in Sudan between the civilian government of PM Abdalla Hamdok and the president of the General Transitional Council Abdel Fattah al Burhan seem to have reached their climax. Protest demonstrations in Khartoum call for the establishment of a military government.