Coup d’état in Sudan: army regains control and represses protests in blood – archyworldys

These sounds of boots, the Sudanese have already heard them many times. Monday, October 25 in the morning, when they woke up after the call to prayer, the telecommunications had been cut. The day began in an eerie silence, recalling the darkest hours of a country which has already experienced three military dictatorships.

The few notifications received at dawn on smartphones before the blackout did not bode well. Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok was arrested at his home, along with most civilian representatives in the transitional authorities. Refusing to give their blank check to the putschists, they were taken to an unknown location by the soldiers with whom they shared power.

Without the possibility of calling relatives or organizing on social networks, the inhabitants of Khartoum opened their door or window a crack, then they went down to the corner of the street. In small groups, they converged on the center of the capital. Gradually, the sky was covered with black smoke. In a few hours, they were thousands to march, spontaneously, slaloming between the barricades of bricks and burnt tires erected to slow the deployment of the security forces.

After blocking the bridges spanning the Blue Nile and the White Nile, the latter were deployed at main intersections, around the airport – closed to international flights – and around the army headquarters, Al-Qiyadah, Mecca of the popular uprising that led to the fall of dictator Omar Al-Bashir on April 11, 2019. A month after a first foiled coup attempt on September 21, which looked like a generals’ test balloon to assess the reaction from the street and the international community, the Sudanese transition was on the verge of derailing. It is now done.

At midday, General Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Al-Bourhane appeared on national television, stormed earlier by his soldiers. Beret screwed on the head, the president of the sovereignty council justified the use of force to “Rectify the course of the transition”. He declared a state of emergency throughout the country, the dissolution of the transitional bodies and the dismissal of the regional governors. After getting rid of almost all the civilians in power, the new master of the country said that the army would guarantee the establishment of a new government made up of “Competent persons” representing all political parties, until elections are held in July 2023.

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