Military ousts Sudan's President al-Bashir
After months of protests against Omar al-Bashir's rule in Sudan, the military toppled the president on Thursday. Defence Minister Awad Ibnuf has been sworn in as the head of the new military council that will rule the country for a transition period. The protests continue, with the demonstrators demanding a civilian council. The US and the EU are backing this demand. Will democracy get a chance in Sudan?
The oppressed are striving for democracy
After Algeria now Sudan is also showing that the Arab Spring is not over, comments Laurent Joffrin, editor-in-chief of Libération:
“One might have thought with resignation that the Muslim world was condemned, as in Syria or Egypt, to tack back and forth between Scylla and Charybdis - that is between the Islamists on the one hand and military regimes on the other (with the variant of an Islamist military regime à la Sudan). Recent events show, however, that a third actor is still waiting in the wings: the people, who are tired of corruption and repression and who tirelessly demand more honesty and more freedom. While democracy is showing signs of fatigue in the old constitutional states, it remains a vibrant point of reference in countries tyrannised by the military or religious fundamentalism.”
Demonstrators' hopes crushed
Rzeczpospolita is disappointed that the military has taken over:
“It was clear that the dictator would be toppled in the same way he came to power - through a military coup. But the leaders of the protests expected the army to set up a governing council with civilians for the period of transition. They thought that those who are responsible for the deaths of numerous demonstrators or the war crimes perpetrated in the province of Darfur a few years ago would be excluded from power. But this hasn't happened. It was unclear who would deliver the address to the nation that the public broadcasters had been announcing since early in the morning. But after hours of hope that it would be a military leader without blood on his hands, it turned out to be the defence minister and vice president General Awad Ibnuf.”
Coup made in China
The West will have to wait a long time for power to be transferred to civilians given that the coup has been orchestrated by a mighty string-puller, writes geopolitics expert Fabio Carminati in Avvenire:
“They won't admit it, but they're the ones behind it - the Chinese. Sudan was Beijing's first port of entry to Africa in the 1980s. ... That's history now, just like the first 'made in China' coup, in Zimbabwe in November 2017. ... Back then there was already talk in Africa of a second phase of the Chinese invasion, namely China's intervention in local politics. Now the concept is being reinforced, because everyone knows that Beijing has a firm grip on the reins and the country's stock markets.”