Sudanese ‘revolution’ is still just a matter of slogans
A Sudanese protester draped with the national flag flashes the victory sign next to burning tyres during a demonstration in the capital Khartoum, on October 25, 2021, to denounce overnight detentions by the army of members of Sudan's government.
In his heyday, Hassan Omar al-Bashir, the disgraced Sudan dictator languishing in jail, may have had people calling for his ouster even as he inadvertently brought trouble upon himself.
Ruling with an iron fist for 30 years, he kept reminding the Sudanese that his Muslim Brotherhood seized power through the barrel of the gun in 1989, and that it would take a similar armed struggle to remove him.
Tired of repression amid a tanking economy and skyrocketing cost of living, the ominous clouds started gathering in 2018 but the dictator was too drunk with power to see the signs.
The popular uprising began in December 2018 and continued for four months despite the repressive tactics of the regime’s forces and militias loyal to it.
The masses culminated in a sit-in in front of the army's general command, in which large crowds of sons and daughters of the Sudanese people joined forces, prompting the Supreme Security Committee to align with them and announce the end of Bashir's rule.
Sudan's ex-president Omar al-Bashir appears in court in the capital Khartoum to face charges of illegal acquisition and use of foreign funds on August 31, 2019.
On this day three years ago, Sudan uprooted the Brotherhood regime and removed its head Bashir, through a statement from the army, whose words are still stuck in the imagination of the victorious revolutionaries.
The Sudanese woke up to the sounds of unified military music on local radio and television stations, with mentions of an “important statement from the armed forces”, before everyone realised that a new history would be written for their country.
Before the sun rose, millions marched towards the army command headquarters in Khartoum, and the capital of Sudan was narrowed by roaring human torrents, after it was proved to them that the hour of victory over Bashir’s regime had come.
With the difficult moments of anticipation, according to eyewitnesses on this historic day, the chants of the sit-in broke the sky, amid groans and tears of joy at the fall of the then most powerful dictatorship in the region.
Sudan's top army general Abdel Fattah al-Burhan holds a press conference at the General Command of the Armed Forces in Khartoum on October 26, 2021.
A short time later, the minister of defense at the time, Lt-Gen Awad Ibn Auf, issued a statement to the Sudanese, announcing the uprooting of the Brotherhood regime and the removal of Bashir, who was detained.
The details of the steadfastness against the army leadership in Khartoum from April 6-11 are still stuck in the imaginations of the Sudanese, as all attempts by the Brotherhood militias failed to dislodge them.
Sudanese demonstrators take to the streets of the capital Khartoum to protest last year's military coup which deepened the country's political and economic turmoil, on March 31, 2022. An October military coup led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan impeded Sudan's transition to civilian rule following the 2019 ouster of autocrat Omar al-Bashir.
Yassir Al-Awad, a Sudanese political analyst, recalls the events of April 11 that fill him with pride. The people withstood tyranny for a few months, ending three decades of Bashir’s rule.
Al-Awad recounts: "It was a new birthday for all Sudanese, in which tears of joy mingled with victory over the dictator, and sadness over the martyrs of the revolution who sacrificed their lives in order to reach this historic station."
He said "the strength of will and the unanimity of the Sudanese on one word and goal, despite their diversity, was the secret of their success in isolating Bashir and putting an end to his brutal rule".
He added: "(The people) moved spontaneously without the direction of a political party or a specific group, as no entity can attribute the glorious December revolution to it."
Sudanese demonstrators take to the streets of the capital Khartoum to protest last year's military coup which deepened the country's political and economic turmoil, on March 31, 2022.
Bashir’s regime began to shake in the city of Atbara in the north of the country on December 19, 2018. It began as a protest against lack of bread, which expanded rapidly to the rest of Sudan for the same reason before moving to the capital Khartoum on December 25, 2018, with a demand for the first time to topple the regime.
Despite the Brotherhood's repression, the Sudanese bravely continued their revolution, seeking to do so peacefully.
Bashir had defied his political opponents and the rebellious masses, issuing overt and veiled threats in an attempt to curb the popular uprising, but his hardline language quickly receded after the protesters arrived in the vicinity of the army command in Khartoum.
Sudanese demonstrators spread a banner that reads in ARabic:" Anger without limits" as they take to the streets of the capital Khartoum to protest last year's military coup which deepened the country's political and economic turmoil, on March 31, 2022.
Observers considered that the fall of Bashir was humiliating for him, as he used to say that he seized power by force of arms and would not leave it except by the same means.
But was the fall of Bashir a real revolution or just a change of faces at the top?
His fall was the first step in the path of change that the Sudanese sought through their revolution demanding freedom, peace and justice, and there are still many more steps before they reach the goal.
The military is still a major obstacle in Sudan’s transition to democratic rule.
Tariq Othman, a Sudanese political analyst, believes that the revolution has not quite materialised.
He told the Nation: "The peace has been achieved in part, as it did not include all the factions of the rebellion and even the factions that signed the peace (agreement) were all concerned with sharing the spoils in wealth and power and they couldn't actually bring peace."
He added: “The second aspect of the revolution’s slogan, which is freedom, suffered a major setback after the coup d’état of the army commander Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan October 25, 2021 and there was an apostasy and a reversal of what was achieved in the following public liberties.”
This is partly linked to the brutality and violence that met peaceful demonstrations. People were killed, human rights violated, and political leaders who rejected military hegemony arrested.
“The last side of the slogan, which is justice, is still hanging on the moods of the leaders of the ruling military authority, and therefore the fall of Bashir means the beginning and not the end,” he added.
“(People from Bashir’s regime still control) the joints of the state, whether it is through the leaders of the military component who represented the security committee … or through the mentality that runs many state institutions.”
