The pens are barely refilled this Sunday, November 21 when Generals Abdel Fattah Al-Bourhane and Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, known as “Hemetti”, echoed the audience gathered in the hall of the presidential palace in the heart of Khartoum. The two brains of the coup d’état carried out on October 25 know that they have just achieved a new tour de force. By agreeing to release the political prisoners and to return to the partnership between civilians and the military with the resettlement of Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok at the head of a government of technocrats, they meet the conditions set by the international community to continue to support Sudan, without questioning their putsch.
At the same time, Abdallah Hamdok does not blink, his gaze serious, his face barred by a mask. He cannot ignore that he has just made a pact with the devil. “We have to stop the bloodshed. I know that our people are capable of sacrifices, yet every drop of blood is precious ”, Abdallah Hamdok is justified in a short speech broadcast live.
The text has everything of an agreement signed with the knife to the throat. A few hours earlier, the Prime Minister was still under house arrest under high military surveillance, with limited contact with the outside. “It is obvious that the Prime Minister was the subject of intense pressure on the part of the military”, analysis Kholood Khair of the think tank Insight Strategy Partners. Shortly after signing the accord, the Prime Minister passed out briefly as he shook hands with his new partners.
Many gray areas
The latter rejoice. This agreement allows them to break the deadlock into which the coup had plunged them since October 25, when international condemnations had multiplied. “We will continue to work to preserve the transition, until the dreams of democracy, peace and justice of the Sudanese are fulfilled”, promised General Abdel Fattah Al-Bourhane. According to the signatories, the elections should be held by July 2023.
The United States, the United Kingdom, Norway and the European Union welcomed the return of Abdallah Hamdok to his post and the signatories’ pledges to revert to the constitutional document signed in August 2019 that had kicked off to the civil-military partnership after the fall of Omar Al-Bashir. However, many gray areas remain. “The devil is in the details. This text is not a return to the status quo. It is worse than the previous one, signed in 2019, which had already given rise to significant concessions from civilians ”, says Kholood Khair.
You have 54.17% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.