Thousands march on first anniversary of Sudan's coup

Thousands of Sudanese demonstrators have taken to the streets of the country's capital, Khartoum, marking the first anniversary of the coup that upended the nation's short-lived transition to democracy

Sudan Analysis (Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Thousands of Sudanese demonstrators took to the streets of the country's capital of Khartoum on Tuesday, marking the first anniversary of a military coup that upended the nation’s short-lived transition to democracy.

Videos published on social media show thousands of demonstrators marching with flags and drums, most of them bound for the Presidential Palace, where they are expected to face a large security presence.

Various outlets and local journalists reported that security forces had closed off bridges leading into Khartoum earlier in the morning. According to netblocks, an online network tracker, internet services across the country have been blocked. There were no immediate reports of violence.

Since their takeover, the military has cracked down and suppressed near-weekly pro-democracy marches, with as many as 118 protesters reported killed.

Sudan’s top general, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and paramilitary deputy Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo were meant to oversee a democratic transition after Sudan's autocratic ruler Omar al-Bashir was toppled in a popular uprising in 2019.

But last year, Burhan dissolved the ruling Sovereign Council, arrested the transitional prime minister and unseated the civilian faction of a power-sharing government that had been in place. He later said he acted to stop a civil war.

Rights groups say hundreds of been detained since the military takeover, many without charge.

In recent weeks, internationally backed talks between Sudan’s pro-democracy movement and the ruling military have made some progress.

According to The Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change — an alliance of political parties and protest groups — the military has agreed on a draft constitutional document written by the country’s Bar Association. This would allow the appointment of a civilian prime minister who would lead the country through elections by 2024.

But Sudan’s more ardent pro-democracy groups, including the grassroots Resistance Committees who spearhead anti-coup street protests, reject any settlement with the military. Along with the Communist Party, they have demanded that those responsible for the year's deadly crackdown on demonstrations be tried in court.

‘‘I have no trust in the army’s intentions, the new negotiation is just a new division of wealth and power'' said Ammar Yahya, the spokesperson for a Khartoum branch of the Resistance Committees.

The coup has plunged Sudan’s already inflation-riddled economy into deeper peril. International aid has dried up while bread and fuel shortages, caused in part by the war in Ukraine, have become increasingly routine.

The year has also seen a resurgence of deadly tribal clashes in the country’s neglected peripheries. Fierce clashes between the Hausa and Berta people last week killed at least 230 people in southern Blue Nile province.

Many analysts consider the rising violence in the south a product of the power vacuum caused by the military takeover, with the ruling generals' clampdown focused on the center of power, Khartoum and the country's heartland, while the peripheries descend into chaos.

Burhan and Dagalo have separately promised to step back from politics following the reinstatement of a civilian government. But amid the chaos, both have also sought to further their political influence.

Daglos' paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, implicated in the killing of more than 100 sit-in protesters in June 2019 in Khartoum, have continued to expand across the country. Meanwhile, Burhan has overseen the reinstatement of dozens of civil servants sacked by the previous government for their association with Bashir's circle.