Sudan: behind the scenes of the fall of President Omar al-Bashir

Fallen Sudanese President Omar el-Béchir at the court in Khartoum, August 31, 2019. REUTERS / Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah

Text by: Léonard Vincent Follow

A year ago today, April 11, 2019, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was overthrown by a palace revolution, under pressure from hundreds of thousands of protesters who took to the streets for five months. A year later, this is what we know of the events that led to his dismissal.

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The man who had been the president of Sudan for 30 years, Omar al-Bashir, had gone to sleep for a few hours, on the night of April 10 to 11, 2019, his mind lightened by the assurances of his dreaded intelligence chief, Salah Gosh. The latter, late in the evening, had reiterated his support for him, despite the crowd occupying the streets of Khartoum, despite the growing reluctance of the general staff and the dangerous divisions in the ranks of the troop.

► Read also: Sudan, one year after the fall of Omar el-Béchir

Two soldiers had been killed a few days earlier, after having intervened between the armed force of the intelligence services and the demonstrators gathered in front of the army headquarters. And officers and non-commissioned officers had openly joined the revolution. In Khartoum , to ensure order, only the meager police remained, the NISS men of Salah Gosh and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces of General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as "Hemeti", a former Janjaweed chief who had served to Béchir for all the low works of his regime since the 2000s.

" Ceaseless cries "

But when he woke up four hours later, it was over. According to a witness present that morning, Bashir understood that the police, the army, the NISS and the Rapid Support Forces would not move to save him: his personal guard had been removed, replaced by soldiers from the regular army. His telephone lines had been cut. After his prayer, he was taken, despite " his incessant cries ," according to this witness quoted by the Reuters agency, to Kober prison where, for decades, he had detained opponents of his regime. On national television, the short-lived head of the Transitional Military Council, Vice-President and General Awad Ibn Aouf, announces the removal of the Sudanese rais.

With hindsight, we now know that the leaders of the army had been exploring their options for several days. For them, the situation was no longer tenable: popular mobilization was too important and their own survival was now at stake. Bashir had ordered repression, but the high command had refused, in particular General Abdel Fattah Al-Bourhane, today today president of the Sovereign Transitional Council, and "Hemeti", number two of the new power. He had been offered an exile in Riyadh: this scenario had also been categorically rejected.

The godfathers of the Gulf

Contacts had therefore been made with Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to secure their support in the event of a coup and financial support for the next day. These powerful Arab countries were worried anyway about the ambiguous game, the reversals of permanent alliances of which Béchir was capable vis-à-vis Iran, Turkey and Qatar, their enemies of the moment. And the still important role, in Sudan, of their transmission belt, on which the former head of state had long relied, with various fortunes: the Islamist brotherhood of the Muslim Brotherhood.

It was therefore Salah Gosh who returned the task of depositing his former ally: it was his defection that gave the signal, on the morning of Thursday, April 11. This same Salah Gosh, a man who knows he is hated in Sudan for his role in repression and political surveillance, has also resigned 24 hours later.

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