Sudan fears army rule after Bashir is deposed
Joy over army’s ousting of Sudan president Bashir turns to anger at prospect of military dictatorship
Omar al-bashir, the Sudanese president, was yesterday deposed by the country’s military following months of protests against his 30-year rule. But anti-government protesters in their thousands pledged to stay on the streets to prevent a military dictatorship, in defiance of a curfew imposed by the head of the army. Bashir, 75, known as the “Butcher of Darfur”, is wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide and other atrocities.
SUDANESE president Omar al-bashir was yesterday deposed by the country’s military following months of demonstrations against his 30 years of iron-fisted rule.
But hundreds of thousands of antigovernment protesters last night pledged to remain on the streets to prevent the instalment of a military dictatorship, in defiance of a curfew imposed by the head of the army.
General Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibnouf, Sudan’s defence minister, declared the end of Bashir’s three-decade dictatorship in a televised address to the nation yesterday afternoon.
“I announce as minister of defence the toppling of the regime and detaining its chief in a secure place,” he said.
Gen Ibnouf, who is also a vice-president and was seen as an ally of Bashir, said the dictator was in a “safe place” and that the country would be placed under direct military rule for two years before fresh elections are called.
He declared a three-month state of emergency and imposed a 10pm curfew for one month.
He said airspace would be closed for 24 hours and border crossings sealed until further notice.
There had been scenes of jubilation in Khartoum yesterday morning after the military said it would make an “important announcement”.
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to dance on top of cars and sing in the early hours.
Excitement built as several political prisoners were released, including Mohamed Youssef al-mustafa, the prominent leader of the Sudan Professionals Association (SPA), the umbrella group of trade unions that has co-ordinated the protest movement. However, the mood quickly changed following Mr Ibnouf’s announcement, with furious crowds shouting: “We don’t want Ibnouf!” and “We are not leaving, we are not leaving. Just fall and that’s all”.
Mutaz Mohammed Saleh, an activist with the Sudan Civil Society Group, another of the groups organising the protests, said: “In the morning they turned out because they were expecting good news.
“Then they got angry and went home, and now they are coming back.”
Alaa Salah, the 22-year-old woman who has become an icon of the protests after she was photographed singing on top of a car, tweeted: “The people do not want a transitional military council. Change will not happen with Bashir’s entire regime hoodwinking Sudanese civilians through a military coup. We want a civilian council to head the transition.”
The SPA had earlier warned that it would not accept an internal military coup and called on followers to stay on the streets until the “regime steps down completely and power is handed to a civilian transitional government”.
Although demonstrators had called on the army to intervene against the president, the defence minister is deeply unpopular among the opposition and widely seen as a Bashir ally.
Gen Ibnouf has had his assets blocked by the US Treasury since 2007 for supporting and managing militias accused of carrying out genocide in the country’s Darfur conflict.
Mr Saleh said protesters remained confident of the support of middle ranking and junior army officers and did not believe soldiers would enforce the 10pm curfew. “The mood on the streets is: we will not be cheated a second time, and we will stay until we achieve our demands.”
Mr Bashir was a paratrooper colonel in the Sudanese army when he came to power in a relatively bloodless Islamist-backed coup in 1989.
His three-decade rule was characterised by an Islamist-tinged dictatorship and bloody domestic conflicts, including a long-running civil war that ended in 2011 with the independence of South Sudan.
The 75-year-old, known as the “Butcher of Darfur”, is wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide, crimes against humanity and other atrocities committed by his troops in that region of western Sudan in the 2000s. But he was also a canny politician who walked a careful line between rival regional powers.
He recently sent troops to fight in Yemen on the side of the Saudi-led coalition, but has also flirted with Saudi rivals, including Turkey.
Like many dictators, he set up rival security agencies at home in order to consolidate his own rule and guard against a coup.
This week that divide-and-rule tactic proved to be his undoing.
His grip on power began to crumble in December, when nationwide protests broke out against soaring inflation and a surge in the price of bread.
Protest leaders announced a “million-person march” to Khartoum’s army headquarters on Saturday, the anniversary of the bloodless military coup that ousted Gaafar Nimeiry, another president facing mass discontent, in 1985.
After the march turned into a sit-in, soldiers inside the base intervened to prevent riot police and officers from the rival National Intelligence and Security Service from breaking up the demonstration.
Jeremy Hunt, Britain’s Foreign Secretary, said yesterday that two years of potential military rule in Sudan “is not the answer” for “real change”.
Mr Hunt tweeted yesterday that Sudan needed “a swift move to an inclusive, representative, civilian leadership” and an end to violence.
‘In the morning they turned out because they were expecting good news. Then they got angry and went home, and now they are coming back.’