Violence In Sudan, And One More Democratic Uprising In Vain
The confrontation was triggered by the Rapid Support Forces, a militia led by General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, better known as Hemeti; a man accused in the past of abuses in Darfur and of murdering protesters in Khartoum.
UAE and Wagner Group links
Hemeti is also linked to the United Arab Emirates, to whom he provided men in exchange for payment to fight in Yemen, and to Russia's Wagner Group mercenary outfit, with whom he has business ties.
It's a fight to the death for power.
His target: another general, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, the head of the regular army, who first came to power during the removal of the dictator in 2019. He then regained control in 2021, with the approval of his friend, Egypt's strongman leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Since then, he has renegotiated a compromise with the civilians, but the process is at a standstill.
In Sudanese cities today, it's a fight to the death for power between two men, two military clans.
“Kandaka,” or Nubian queen, became a symbol of the pro-democracy protests in Sudan.
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Born in Tunisia
But these new conflicts risk undoing four years of democratic uprising. Sudanese civil society is very strong, with powerful professional organizations, such as those of doctors and engineers, but it has always been up against a military force that does not want to surrender its power or economic advantages.
For over a decade, aspirations for freedom, born in Tunisia in 2011, have faced numerous obstacles. Islamist control, conservative counter-revolution, civil wars, disillusionment of populations — indeed, the reasons for failure are numerous.
In Tunisia, as in Sudan, civil society has not had the necessary strength or coherence to succeed — and two more countries join the growing list of democratic experiments that have failed.
