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.

Fed up of the low pace, people have gatherers on streets demanding for a rapid change and civilian government over the military one.