It all started in Khartoum on the 19th of December 2018 as a peaceful demonstration against poverty, rising cost of basic goods, unemployment and economic conundrum. It escalated to other parts of the country as the protesters also used social media as a tool in showing their grievances, all in an effort to get Omar al-Bashir to step down as the country’s supreme leader. Al-Bashir also responded by cracking down on the protesters and other opponents of his regime.
The primary goal of the insurrection was for regime change, and the call for the removal of austerity plan. The proposed austerity measure was part of a measure taken by the Sudan President on the recommendation of the IMF. Demonstrators wanted an economic reform, free and fair election and human rights which were lacking under al-Bashir.
al-Bashir knew his time in office was coming to an end when the protesters got the backing and support of the opposition parties and the number of youths and women who joined the crusade increased on a daily basis.
Early in the year, Algierians started their own protest against Abdelaziz Boutilflika and called for his resignation after decades of civilian dictatorship, part of which he spent on hospital bed abroad.
The Khartoum and Algiers mass protest shared some certain similarities but the Khartoum case saw al-Bashir out of office while in the case of the latter, he had to resign
When the protests got to a crescendo and got special attention from the international community, the government of Al-Bashir introduced a couple of draconian measures. He imposed a state of emergency for a one year and later reduced to six months, he dissolved the central and regional governments, postponed the constitutional amendment that would halted his continued reign, without cancelling his candidacy for another term. A the military takeover in form of a palace coup d’état by the country’s Defense Minister, General Awad Ibn Awuf, and Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Burhan, was therefore inevitable . The junta leader and de facto Head of State, General Awuf, had to step down after a rejuvenated mass protest that saw him relinquish power to Lt Burhan in other to pave way for a new election slated to hold in the next few weeks.
With the latest development of citizens’ voice in Sudan and Algeria, can we say the two countries are in the safe hands?, Then we have to look into memory lane as the 2011 Arab Spring easily comes to end. The modern Arab world, comprising the Middle East and the Northern Africa, witnessed an unprecedented quandary when Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Yemen de facto rulers were ousted from office. Civil uprisings erupted in Bahrain and Syria and major mass protests occurred in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco and Oman as well as demonstration occurs in Lebanon, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and in some part of the Western Sahara. The mass protests in the Arab world in 2011 have been compared with the events of 1848, when the youth in Europe took to the streets to protest against tyranny but that of Arab Spring was a protest for regime change with the influence of the western world.
In 2011, Sudan had a minor protest but it didn’t catch the attention of United States and the United Kingdom as the West was in a conflict of interest in Libya. During the period of 2011, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria degenerated into violence and even civil war with no end in sight.
Sudan has to be prudent with the term ‘regime change’, the Arab Spring made life worse with only step forward in Tunisia. Tunis served as a role model for Arab democracy following the overthrow of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali though after the revolution, the country faced greater challenges.
Sudan protesters have to control themselves in other to avoid what the post- revolution crises that erupted in Libya and Syria. It was devastating for the two countries after 2011 with Yemen in the radar, where the aftermath of draconian regimes paved way for civil war instead of freedom and democracy. The ongoing civil war in Syria has seen close to 500,000 people killed already and no end in sight for now. The fall of Muammar Gaddafi has seen the raised of armed militias with In Yemen, when the country’s leader, Abdullah Saleh, was overthrown, the rise of Houthi forces occurred with devastating consequences.
With the exception of Tunisia, the Arab Spring is yet to bring democracy and the kind of freedom people yearned for, but the conflict has triggered the rise of radical militias. The Arab Spring has its own positive and negative impacts and Sudan and its neighbors Algeria have to be cautious in order to mitigate the consequences of the identified negatives.
Zanna Samaila and Adamu Hassan Wrote from Damaturu, Yobe state.
