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While Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok has just resigned, several specialists fear the confrontation between soldiers and demonstrators. A decree from General Burhane which guarantees the impunity of the security forces and gives them all power raised fears of further violence.
By resigning, Sunday, January 2, the Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok left the military alone in command of a country plunged into deadly violence since the putsch. An abandonment that raises fears of a return to dictatorship in Sudan.
Sad record since the coup d’état of October 25 fomented by the army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane : 57 demonstrators were killed according to a union of pro-democracy doctors, female demonstrators were raped according to the UN, many journalists have been beaten and even arrested and the internet and the telephone only work at the will of the government .
A decree from General Burhane raises fears of more violence because it guarantees the impunity of the security forces and gives them all power under the terms of an “emergency law” inherited from the era of dictator Omar al-Bashir, deposed in 2019.
A “confrontation” between the military and the street
At the end of November and after a month under house arrest, Abdallah Hamdok had returned to his post after an agreement with General Burhane. “Paralyzed” and having “been unable to accomplish anything” since, in the words of Rift Valley Institute researcher Magdi Gizouli, the Prime Minister threw in the towel on Sunday.
As a result, Magdi Gizouli told AFP on the one hand, “the military alone in command” and on the other, “the demonstrators who will still take to the streets and face more violence “.
“It is an open confrontation between the security forces and the old regime on the one hand – but this time without (Omar el-) Bashir – and on the other a movement without a leader in the street which only holds youth activism “, summarizes the researcher.
The streets want General Burhane to fall
General Burhane, former commander of the army under Omar al-Bashir, is particularly in the sights of the demonstrators. For the street, the return to the popular revolt is recorded. That of 2019 dismissed the dictator, they intend to repeat the feat with General Burhane.
The spearhead of the revolt against Omar al-Bashir in 2018-2019 and against the military since October 25, the Association of Sudanese professionals, has already called for new demonstrations on Tuesday.
“Hamdok’s resignation robs the generals of their facade and clearly shows that the coup is nothing more than a return to Bashir’s military-Islamist policy,” asserts Kholood Khair, Sudan specialist for Insight Strategy partners.
A decree “reinforcing the repression”
On October 25, General Burhane extended his tenure for two years, erasing any idea of a transfer of power to civilians before the end of the transition he always promises for July 2023.
Two months later, he authorized with an “emergency decree” the security forces to “enter any building, search it and the people therein” and “carry out surveillance and seizures. “. And this, by informing only the Sovereignty Council, directed by itself, and by effectively overriding justice.
In addition, members of the security services – army, police, intelligence but also paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (FSR) accused of abuses in Darfur – enjoy immunity and cannot be questioned.
For the opponents, the 57 demonstrators killed, the hundreds injured as well as the arrests are proof that this decree only reinforces the repression in a country which, since its independence 65 years ago, has known only a handful years outside the rule of the generals.
With AFP
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