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Geopolitics

Violence In Sudan, And One More Democratic Uprising In Vain

More than a decade after the Arab Spring gave hope of a wave of democracy in North Africa and beyond, the violence that has erupted in Sudan squashes hope in that troubled nation of a democratic future.

​Image of a man on his motorcycle in Khartoum, Sudan, driving away from smoke.

A smoke-filled street in Khartoum, Sudan.

Sudan News/Twitter
Pierre Haski

-Analysis-

PARIS — A few months ago, when we still wanted to believe that the Arab Spring was not completely dead, we were careful about mentioning Sudan and Tunisia. News was coming in from Tunisia, where that wave of democratic revolutions had begun more than a decade ago, that the North African country had taken a worrying authoritarian turn with President Kaïs Saïed. And now in Sudan, violence has erupted over the past two days between two military branches that has left dozens dead.

Sudan, a huge country bridging both the Arab and African worlds, joined the second wave of democratic uprisings in 2018. The country had been under the rule of an Islamist dictator, Omar Al-Bashir, for three decades. The impressive demonstrations led by all segments of society led to Bashir being overthrown by the army in 2019.

Since then, Sudan has been trying to find a path between the demands of its active and well-structured civil society and the army, which refuses to yield power. On Saturday, a showdown broke out between two armed forces. Among the victims were many civilians and aid workers caught in the crossfire.

Two strong men at the head of a country is one too many. The same goes for two armies.


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.

Image of \u201cKandaka,\u201d or Nubian queen, talking to a crowd during a protest in Sudan.

“Kandaka,” or Nubian queen, became a symbol of the pro-democracy protests in Sudan.

@lan_hago/Twitter

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.

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Society

Italy's Right-Wing Government Turns Up The Heat On 'Gastronationalism'

Rome has been strongly opposed to synthetic foods, insect-based flours and health warnings on alcohol, and aggressive lobbying by Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government against nutritional labeling has prompted accusations in Brussels of "gastronationalism."

Dough is run through a press to make pasta

Creation of home made pasta

Karl De Meyer et Olivier Tosseri

ROME — On March 23, the Italian Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, Francesco Lollobrigida, announced that Rome would ask UNESCO to recognize Italian cuisine as a piece of intangible cultural heritage.

On March 28, Lollobrigida, who is also Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's brother-in-law, promised that Italy would ban the production, import and marketing of food made in labs, especially artificial meat — despite the fact that there is still no official request to market it in Europe.

Days later, Italian Eurodeputy Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of fascist leader Benito Mussolini and member of the Forza Italia party, which is part of the governing coalition in Rome, caused a sensation in the European Parliament. On the sidelines of the plenary session, Sophia Loren's niece organized a wine tasting, under the slogan "In Vino Veritas," to show her strong opposition (and that of her government) to an Irish proposal to put health warnings on alcohol bottles. At the end of the press conference, around 11am, she showed her determination by drinking from the neck of a bottle of wine, to great applause.

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