Army Treads a Fine Line as Protests Rattle the Sudanese Capital
Sudan Army Rejects Using Force on Protests as Crisis Intensifies
(Bloomberg) -- Sudan’s army walked a tightrope at a crunch moment in a four-month uprising against long-time President Omar al-Bashir, making conflicting statements over how to deal with protests as demonstrators said soldiers had protected them from a crackdown by security forces.
Sporadic gunfire rocked the sit-in outside military headquarters in the capital, Khartoum, overnight and through Tuesday morning, Imam Ahmed, who was at the scene, said by phone. As protesters urge the powerful army to support them, all eyes are on its actions for signs of which way it will lean. The North African country has seen a series of coups since independence in 1956.
“The stance of the army in the next hours and days will be crucial for the fate of the uprising,” said Jean-Baptiste Gallopin, a doctoral candidate at Yale University and a former Sudan researcher for Amnesty International. “If the military as a whole tilt on the side of protesters, other segments of the military and security apparatus will have to decide whether Bashir is worth defending at the price of a civil war.”
On Tuesday morning, pan-Arab satellite channel al-Hadath reported the army as saying protests could only be dispersed through peaceful means. It was an apparent reference to attacks on the Khartoum sit-in that began April 6, which a doctors’ committee says have left 21 people dead.
But the military also affirmed its commitment to al-Bashir, a former officer who seized power in 1989, and later the same day, army spokesman Ahmed al-Shami said it didn’t get involved in political matters and would break up any “illegal gathering.”
While al-Bashir, 75, has seen off rebellions and mass protests before, the demonstrations that erupted in mid-December over soaring living costs have been his biggest challenge yet. More than 45 people have been killed and 2,600 arrested, according to rights groups. The government acknowledges some of the economic grievances but insists elections in 2020 are the only path to change.
Sheltering Protesters
One witness in Khartoum, Ammar Abdul Magid, said the military allowed hundreds of protesters into their base overnight for protection. The doctors’ committee said its death toll from the three days included five soldiers. Army spokesman al-Shami in a statement to the al-Arabiya TV channel accused “unknown agents” of infiltrating the protests and killing the troops.
Amnesty said Tuesday that one of the fatalities resulted from an apparent skirmish between the National Intelligence and Security Services and police on one side, and army officers on the other. Sudan’s police in a statement vowed not to intervene against demonstrators.
As protesters kept up their sit-in, their chants continued: “Freedom,” “one people, one army,” and “the army is with us, so we don’t care.”
“The army does not appear to have made up its mind yet about how to proceed,” said Abdelwahab El-Affendi, the dean of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies in Qatar and a former Sudanese diplomat. “The leadership is still loyal to Bashir, and Bashir’s entourage is itself divided.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Mohammed Alamin in Khartoum at malamin1@bloomberg.net;Samuel Gebre in Nairobi at sgebre@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Malingha at dmalingha@bloomberg.net, Michael Gunn, Karl Maier
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.