Regional and international mediations, which have been going on for more than a week, failed to convince the military component in Sudan that the transitional government led by Abdallah Hamdok would resume its work, and that the situation would return to before the measures taken by the army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
Both the military and civilian components of the country adhere to their position, which has thwarted attempts by Washington, the United Nations, the Arab League, the State of South Sudan and other countries to bring the two sides closer together, and the negotiations reached a dead end.
Since the overthrow of Omar al-Bashir’s regime in April 2019, there has been a raging power struggle and a state of muffled tension between the civilian and military components, which made many observers not see any surprise in the measures taken by the military institution represented by the (dissolved) Sovereign Council Chairman, Army Commander General Corner of Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan.
A revolution against the Bashir regime
- December 19, 2018: Demonstrations against President Omar al-Bashir start in the city of Atbara in River Nile State due to the deteriorating economic conditions.
April 11, 2019: The then Minister of Defense, Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf, announced the arrest of Al-Bashir, in compliance with the demands of the demonstrators, foremost of which was the overthrow of the regime that ruled the country for three decades.
April 12, 2019: Ibn Auf announced his resignation after the protesters refused to take power, as he was an extension of the Bashir regime.
Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan assumed the presidency of the temporary military council to manage the affairs of the country.
- April 2019: With the start of negotiations between civilians and the military, the first dispute between civilians and armed movements was over who is negotiating and who represents the forces of freedom and change.
- May 2019: The Military Council demanded early elections, which the protesters rejected, claiming that it was an attempt to legitimize the old regime once again, in light of the incomplete picture with its various pillars, and the inability of the revolutionary forces to gather their diaspora and arrange their papers to enter the new phase.
Protest leaders threatened to organize "civil disobedience" across the country in response to what they described as the "disruption" of the military's transfer of power to a civilian government.
June 2019: The clash between the two components reached its climax early, when the military institution committed what was known as the "General Command massacre".
About two thousand soldiers affiliated with the army, the Rapid Support Forces, and the police launched a violent attack on the sit-in in front of the headquarters of the General Command to protest the council’s procrastination in handing over power to civilians, which left about 150 people dead, according to some estimates, and 40 of them were thrown into the Nile River.
Al-Burhan came out, announcing the cessation of negotiations with the Forces of Freedom and Change and announcing that general elections would be held within 9 months, accusing the civil forces of working to monopolize power.
The Military Council cut off the internet in most parts of the country, which entered into a mass civil disobedience at the invitation of the Sudanese Professionals Association.
Some mediators intervened to bring the two components closer together, led by the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, who visited Khartoum alongside the African Union’s diplomatic efforts, which eventually resulted in the power-sharing document.
The power-sharing and power-sharing document
July 2019: The Military Council and the Forces of Freedom and Change signed the first document of the agreement to hand over power, which included general provisions on managing the phase and sharing governance between the two components.
July 9, 2019: A meeting was held between the Forces of Freedom and Change and the Revolutionary Front in Addis Ababa to discuss the formation of the government.
August 11, 2019: A delegation from the Forces of Freedom and Change meets the leaders of the armed movements, "Gabriel Ibrahim - Mona Arko Minawi - Al-Hadi Idris - owner of a property, accompanied by Yasser Arman" in Ain Sukhna, eastern Egypt.
August 17, 2019: The signing ceremony of the document was held in the presence of heads of state and government, which approved a transitional period of 39 months, and the formation of a Sovereignty Council of 11 members (5 civilians chosen by Freedom and Change, 5 soldiers chosen by the Military Council, and a civilian member chosen by consensus between the two parties). .
According to the document, the formed Sovereignty Council is headed by a military person for the first 21 months and ends in November 2021, while the remaining 18 months are headed by a civilian member. The Prime Minister is from the list of candidates for the Declaration of Freedom and Change, and is approved by the Sovereignty Council, except for the Ministers of Defense and Interior, who are nominated by the military component of the Sovereignty Council.
Hamdok as Prime Minister
August 21, 2019: The Sovereignty Council appointed Abdullah Hamdok as prime minister during the transitional period and took the constitutional oath.
September 5, 2019: After the formation of the Hamdok government, the first round of negotiations with the Revolutionary Front began in October 2019.
October 2019: Hamdok issued a decision to form an independent national committee to investigate the violations that occurred in the massacre, which angered the military in a way that prompted them to block any measures taken in this path.
February 2020: The office of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he met Al-Burhan in Entebbe, Uganda, and that they agreed to start a dialogue in order to “normalize relations” between the two countries, a meeting that the government denied being aware of, which increased the tension between the civil and military components. .
October 2020: US President Donald Trump announced official normalization between "Israel" and Sudan, exposing the tensions between the wings of power in the country.
- The Minister of Foreign Affairs in the first government of Hamdok, Omar Qamar El-Din, hinted that the military component in the government made the decision to join the UAE and Bahrain to start relations with Israel, and the prime minister accepted it reluctantly.
April 23, 2020: The Umma Party announces the freezing of its activities in the Freedom and Change Alliance.
June 6, 2020: A split in the Sudanese Professionals Association, which led the popular revolution, with one group supporting the government and another opposing it.
October 3, 2020: Signing a peace agreement with some leaders of the Revolutionary Front in Juba.
The agreement amended the date for handing over power to the civilian component, after introducing some additions to it related to the parties participating in the government and their power shares.
- November 7, 2020: The Communist Party, led by Muhammad Ibrahim Naqd, announces its exit from the political incubator of the Alliance for Freedom and Change.
September 8, 2021: About 20 armed parties and movements announced a new bloc called the "Technical Committee of the Forces of Freedom and Change" calling for the restructuring of the alliance.
September 8, 2021: The Forces for Freedom and Change announced the Central Council group (43 parties and movements) signing a political declaration for the unity of the alliance amid the withdrawal of the Justice and Equality Movement led by Jibril Ibrahim and the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Arko Minawi.
- September 19, 2021: the head of all the Hadandawa tribes, Muhammad Al-Amin Turk, announces the closure of Port Sudan port and the national road.
September coup attempt
- September 21, 2021: The army announces that a coup attempt has been thwarted and that 21 officers and a number of soldiers have been arrested, and that the search is underway to arrest the rest of those involved.
Hamdok, in a statement broadcast on television, said: "What happened was a plotted coup by parties inside and outside the armed forces, and it is an extension of the attempts of the remnants since the fall of the former regime to abort the democratic civil transition."
October 2, 2021: The group of parties and entities that called for the reform of the alliance announces a new charter of the alliance.
October 16, 2021: The National Charter group calls for demonstrations against Hamdok's government and announces the signing of the National Accord Charter.
October 16, 2021: The demonstrations of the National Charter group turn into a sit-in in front of the presidential palace calling for the dissolution of the government, claiming that the Central Council group controls the current government.
October procedures
October 25, 2021, an unprecedented wave of arrests, including the Prime Minister, most of the ministers, political leaders and heads of parties, in addition to controlling the radio and television building and a heavy spread in the streets and roads.
October 25, 2021: Al-Burhan declares a state of emergency in the country, dissolves the Sovereignty Councils and Transitional Ministers, suspends some provisions of the constitutional document, and freezes the work of the Empowerment Committee.
Al-Burhan affirms, in a speech broadcast on Sudanese television, the commitment to the Juba Peace Agreement (signed with armed movements in October 2020), and that an independent government of competencies will be formed to govern the country until the elections are held in July 2023.
- The Ministry of Information and Culture described what happened as a "full fat coup", in what Al-Burhan called "correcting the course of the revolution."
- The forces of the revolution called for demonstrations and sit-ins to “restore the country from the grip of the military,” and labor and professional entities and organizations announced their strike, amid international and regional reactions condemning what happened, calling for a return to the democratic path and activating the terms of the constitutional document and adhering to its provisions that refer to the handover of power for civilians next month.