#sudanprotestmovement

AFRICANGLOBE – Sudan’s ruling military council has said it foiled a coup attempt with at least 16 officers arrested, according to state-run TV. The announcement came a week after the generals and civilian protesters agreed to a power-sharing deal.

AFRICANGLOBE – In a communique on Monday, the African Union’s Peace and Security Council called for Sudan’s military to transfer power to a “transitional civilian-led political authority” within 15 days or face suspension from the AU.

AFRICANGLOBE – There are a number of reasons why the RSF, whose core fighters come from the violent war zone in Darfur, were handed control of Khartoum. First, the ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC) stopped trusting the army ranks. Second, being largely from outside the capital, the RSF would likely show no hesitation cracking down on strangers. Third, having already engaged in atrocities in Darfur and elsewhere, they could be more willing to obey orders no matter how ghastly.

AFRICANGLOBE – Heavily armed and dressed in desert fatigues, Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have made their presence felt in Khartoum since military generals cracked down on a long-running sit-in. Piled onto pickup trucks mounted with machine guns or patrolling the streets on foot, they are seen by some protesters as a new version of the infamous Janjaweed militias accused of horrific abuses in Darfur.

AFRICANGLOBE – People in Sudan are dying, at the hands of a brutal military which is refusing to hand over power to civilians. And in all this bloodshed, the world must not turn its back on Sudan. When Omar al-Bashir was unceremoniously ousted from power, there was a hope that power would immediately be conferred to the civilians. But that has not been the case. The intransigence of the military has been frustrating, and deadly. The Sudanese have come to the realization that the military is just not yet ready to give power to civilians.

AFRICANGLOBE – The African Union has suspended Sudan’s membership until the military hands over power to a civilian-led transitional government.  A tweet from its Peace and Security Council reads: “The #AU Peace and Security Council has with immediate effect suspended the participation of the Republic of #Sudan in all #AU activities until the effective establishment of a Civilian-led Transitional Authority, as the only way to allow the Sudan to exit from the current crisis.

AFRICANGLOBE – Crowds of wounded people continued to throng the corridors of Sudan’s Royal Care Hospital on Tuesday, a day after a deadly crackdown on protesters outside the military headquarters in the capital, Khartoum. Some sat on the floor with their wounds bandaged, as others with gunshot wounds lay waiting for help from doctors who had been tending to the wounded round the clock for more than a day.

AFRICANGLOBE – Young, brash and with an estimated 50,000 blindly loyal and combat-hardened fighters behind him, Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo is perhaps the most powerful, some would say dangerous, man in post-Omar Al Bashir Sudan – at the least, a kingmaker who could hold the key to the country’s future.