Elusive spring

The interim military council in Sudan, which seized power in a coup overthrowing President Omar al-Bashir in April, cracks down on peaceful pro-democracy protesters in Khartoum who were demanding the promised civilian rule, leaving at least 100 dead.

Sudanese protesters listen to speeches during a sit-in outside the military headquarters in Khartoum on May 15.

THE brutal crackdown by the Sudanese army on the peaceful protesters who have been camping outside the army headquarters since April has further exacerbated the political crisis wracking the country. According to the opposition, the Alliance for Freedom and Change, more than a hundred protesters were killed as soldiers and paramilitary forces went on a shooting spree on June 3. The Sudanese Health Ministry claimed that only around 60 people were killed in the army operations. In the following days, there were reports of bodies being fished out of the Nile, which flows through Khartoum, the capital. According to opposition sources, many of the civilians killed were dumped in the river by the battle-hardened paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which were brought into the capital by the army from Darfur and other parts of Sudan.

Many of the RSF fighters belonged to the “Janjaweed” militia that fought alongside government forces in the civil war in Darfur. The Vice President in the interim military government, 41-year-old Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, alias “Hemedti”, was a former head of the Janjaweed and has been accused of war crimes relating to the military campaign in Darfur. He was made the boss of all the paramilitary groups operating in various parts of Sudan by the former President Omar al-Bashir. There are reports that the army raided hospitals looking for pro-democracy activists who were being treated for wounds sustained in the brutal crackdown. More than 400 civilians were injured in the military action.

Dagalo initially tried to masquerade as a friend of the civilian protesters. In a television interview in May, Dagalo claimed that he had refused orders from President Bashir to shoot at thousands of unarmed protesters. He was among those senior military and security officials who eventually decided to dump their long-time patron Bashir. The paramilitary RSF was specifically created to provide protection for the President from attempted coups from within the army.

Failed agreement

The army’s intent was to remove the thousands of protesters from the streets of the capital and negotiate with them from a position of strength on the future course of the country. So far, the military has failed to achieve this goal and the opposition seems united in its resolve to reinstate civilian rule in the country. The protesters and the political parties and groups supporting them have vowed to continue their protests until the last vestiges of military rule disappear. After the heavy-handed dispersal of the peaceful protesters, the head of the military junta, Lt Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, requested the opposition to once again resume talks for a road map for a return to civilian rule. The opposition parties and the groups calling for democracy did not waste time in rejecting the latest offer.

The Khartoum massacre on June 3 took place just weeks after the army leadership and the Alliance for Freedom and Change had signed a preliminary agreement that appeared to pave the way for the creation of an interim civilian government. Under the agreement, there was to be a three-tier government consisting of a sovereign council composed of members of the military and civilians, an executive council consisting of members of the civilian alliance, and a national assembly in which two-thirds of the 300 seats were to be allotted to civilians. The agreement fell apart as the two sides could not resolve their differences on the composition and chairmanship of the sovereign council. In retrospect, the military was not really serious about ceding ground to civilians and were preparing the ground for the June 3 crackdown.

The African Union (A.U.), under the chairmanship of another military strongman, Gen. Abdel Fatah El-Sisi of Egypt, was quick to suspend Sudan from the grouping after the military government’s use of excessive force against unarmed civilians. The A.U.’s Peace and Security Council announced that Sudan’s “suspension” would last until “the effective establishment” of a civilian-led transitional authority. The United Nations and many governments have also strongly criticised the government of Sudan. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were among the few countries that tacitly supported the military action.

The massacre happened just days after Lt Gen. Burhan returned from a visit to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt. Dagalo, the RSF chief, was also in Jeddah a few days before the massacre in Khartoum. He had a long meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Dagalo pledged his loyalty to the Crown Prince and promised to back Saudi Arabia “against all threats and attacks” from its enemies. He also reiterated his commitment to keep Sudanese fighters in Yemen to fight Saudi Arabia’s proxy war. Lt Gen. Burhan was nominally in charge of Sudanese troop operations in Yemen. Both Burhan and Dagalo have become close to the Saudis and the Emiratis since the war in Yemen began four years ago.

The Egyptian government is also particularly worried about the protests in Sudan, which are reminiscent of what happened in its country during the Arab Spring protests in 2014. The Egyptian army had quashed pro-democracy protests in Cairo with even more deadly force. As many as 800 protesters were killed in Cairo that year. Many Sudanese believe that their army is adopting the same methods. Sudanese protesting on the streets openly say that but for Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the military would have been out of power by now.

There is also the fear that somebody like Dagalo would emerge as a “Sisi”- or “Khalifa Haftar”-like figure in Sudan. In Libya, Gen. Haftar seems on the verge of defeating the civilian government in Libya with the backing of the French, the Saudis and the Emiratis. The United States Charge d’affaires in Sudan, Steven Koutsis, shared an “Iftar” meal with Dagalo in May.

The Islamist parties in Sudan, which were indifferent to the fate of President Bashir, now have started supporting the interim military council. They staged a demonstration in support of the military a few days after the massacre of civilians. They waved banners that were in favour of the Sharia and against secularism. The Saudis and the Emiratis have offered more than $3 billion in aid to the Sudanese military government to temporarily tide it over the economic and political crisis and strengthen the military’s position. The protesters on the streets of Khartoum and the opposition parties have contemptuously rejected the offer.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are also dependent on Sudanese fighters since a significant section of the mercenary army deployed in Yemen hails from Sudan, many of them from Darfur. There are around 10,000 Sudanese fighting in Yemen and their role is crucial in the Saudi-imposed war on Yemen. Dagalo, according to reports appearing in the Sudanese and regional media, has personally profited from the war in Yemen. At a recent press conference, Dagalo boasted that he had set aside $350 million from his own funds to help Sudan’s economy. He claimed that he made this fortune in Yemen and from profits from gold mining.

Peaceful protests to continue

After the Khartoum incident, the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), which has been at the forefront of the struggle to restore civilian rule in the country, issued an appeal to the people to continue protesting peacefully and to “paralyse public life” by blocking the main roads and bridges over the Nile in Khartoum. The Sudanese Communist Party, which has been playing an active role in the protests, said the resumption of dialogue with the present military leadership would be an exercise in futility.

A communist party leader, Amal al-Zein, said the members of the ruling military council were all remnants of the old regime despite their role in the ouster of the former military ruler Omar al-Bashir in April. “All members of the military council belong to the old regime, and that is why we are betting on younger officers,” she said. “We are hoping that patriotic police officers and military officers will act to protect the Sudanese people.” The Communist Party had warned in April that the Sudanese military coup was “a carbon copy” of the events in Egypt in 2011. The party also denounced the RSF as “militia thugs who have terrorised and killed thousands of people”. The tactics used by the RSF in Khartoum were similar to those used by the Janjaweed in Darfur and other parts of Sudan.

After the crackdown, the military initially announced that it had suspended talks with the civilians. The ruling military council had even announced a new timetable for the transition to democracy. Lt Gen. Burhan said elections would be held within seven to nine months. The army and the opposition had previously agreed on a longer transition period of up to three years.

Abiy Ahmed, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, was in Khartoum soon after the bloody events of June 3. He was on a mission to kick-start talks between the military and the civilians once again. He has since expressed optimism about the possible resumption of talks. Opposition leaders and civil society groups, even while welcoming Ahmed’s mediation, said that meaningful talks could only resume if the military admitted that a massacre had taken place.

“The Transitional Military Council has to admit to the crime it committed,” Omar al Digeit, a prominent leader of the protest movement, told the media in Khartoum. He also demanded an international probe into the massacre. The SPA demanded the immediate transfer of power to a civilian government and the “dissolution” of the Janjaweed militia.