The Sudanese Revolution and the Fall of Bashir
Protests began in December 2018 in Atbara over the tripling of the bread price and spread nationwide, organised substantially by the Sudanese Professionals Association under the chant 'Freedom, peace and justice'. In April 2019 demonstrators established a mass sit-in outside army headquarters in Khartoum. On 11 April the military removed Omar al-Bashir, in power since 1989 and subject to International Criminal Court warrants for genocide in Darfur. The protesters did not disperse, demanding civilian rather than military rule. On 3 June the Rapid Support Forces — the paramilitary successor to the Darfur Janjaweed, commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti — attacked the sit-in, killing more than a hundred people. A power-sharing agreement in August created a joint civilian-military Sovereignty Council with Abdalla Hamdok as prime minister. The arrangement was ended by the generals themselves. In October 2021 army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Hemedti jointly seized full power. In April 2023 the two men turned on each other over the terms of integrating the RSF into the regular army, and Sudan collapsed into a war that has produced the world's largest displacement crisis.
- Year: 2019 CE
- Category: Political
