The two men who derailed Sudan’s revolution

Because of them, Sudan is at risk of falling into a civil war.

On December 19, 2018, protests broke out in small cities throughout Sudan amid an economic crisis, eventually reaching the country’s capital, Khartoum. These protests posed the biggest challenge to Sudan’s longest-serving dictator, Omar al-Bashir. Throughout his regime, he did everything he could to remain in power, like relying on various security sectors to protect him from being overthrown. However, his plan ultimately failed on April 11, 2019, when the country’s army, the Sudanese Armed Forces, and a paramilitary force, the Rapid Support Forces, sided with the protesters and carried out a military coup — toppling Bashir.

The end of Bashir’s regime brought hope to the protesters, but they remained skeptical about the men who had overthrown him. SAF’s Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF’s Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (a.k.a. Hemedti) took control of the country after the coup. They made repeated promises to hand over power to civilians, which would put Sudan on a democratic path. But they continually delayed fulfilling their promises and instead turned against each other, vying for power in Sudan. The two men have brutally interrupted the country’s pro-democracy revolution.

Watch the latest episode of Atlas to understand how their feud has undermined the democratic aspirations of the protesters and put Sudan at risk of a civil war.

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