Why are Sudanese people back on the streets?
Shocking visuals have been circulating from Sudan where
people can be seen on streets protesting in major cities of the country to demand “freedom, peace and justice”, the rallying cry for the
protesters who ousted Omar al-Bashir in 2019.
But when Bashir has already been ousted, then why the
protest? This protest is because people want a greater role for civilians in
the country’s transition towards democracy and faster reform. People are scared
that the longer this transition will take, the less will be the balance between
the people and the government.
When Bashir was ousted, a civilian-military sovereign
council headed by a civilian prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok, and
made up of six civilians and five military officers, took over. Since then a
lot has been done. Serious efforts have been made to meet another very
important demand core – the end to incessant conflicts in Sudan. Peace efforts
have been pursued with the rebel Sudan Revolutionary Front. Apart from this,
systematic jailing of opponents has stopped, censorship on the press has also
been stopped but the problem is these reforms are too slow. This is a matter of
deep concern in the public.
Even now the civilian government is not fully at place.
The military elite still have full control and influence, sidelining the
civilians and often pushing for greater compromises from civilian partners.
Things like this can be easily figured out by a lot of things. For example
Legislative transitional council is still not installed, civilian governors have
also not been appointed and control remains in the military’s hand.
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