May 02,2019

Andrew Campbell

The African Union urged Sudan’s military leaders to give power to a civilian authority before April 15. Since the proposal was ignored, another 60 days were given on May 1. The AU threatened to punish the military leaders if they failed to do so.

The bloc hopes Sudan can have peaceful transitional government, and therefore Sudanese people can enjoy human rights and freedoms. However, chaos or fights were seen in the capital, Khartoum now and then. The military planned to hold elections within two years but the protesters insisted going to the streets, asking for civilian rule at once. 

The key point is the aftermath of Omar al-Bashir’s losing power on April 11. In the past 30 years, political Islam worked smoothly because the founder of Popular Congress party, Hassan al-Turabi, a lawyer and Islamic scholar, and Bashir’s National Congress party cooperated well: Turabi led Islamists to help Bashir take power in 1989, and Turabi had the power to turn Sudan into an Islamist center, inviting famous figures like Osama bin Laden or Tunisia’s Rachid Ghannouchi. But Sudanese people has suffered 30 years of corruption and killing, the Islamist parties won’t have any chance to be elected in a democratic process, analyst Hafiz Ismail says so. That is, he does not think political Islam has any future in Sudan.

Besides, National Umma Party chief Sadiq al-Mahdi warned Sudanese people not to “provoke the army council…by depriving them of their positive role in the revolution.” His warning broke the deadlock between the protest leaders and the 10-member army council. He is optimistic about the transfer of power because a military dictatorship won’t go far.