There are a multitude of aphorisms that leap up in the mind, when anyone looks at the sad situation of The Republic of the Sudan today.
‘The road to hell is lined with good intentions’ is one such saying.
‘Be careful what you wish for’ is another saying, which reeks with foreboding of unintended consequences.
In December 2018 the women of Sudan were in the forefront of a grassroots revolution whose main aim was to overthrow the thirty-year-old government of President Omar al-Bashir. Initially the grouse of the protesters was the rising cost of living in the country, as well as the general deterioration in the economy. Soon, they were calling openly for the resignation of President Omar al-Bashir, a rugged man with an ‘Islamist’ agenda, who ruled with an iron fist.
Women going on the streets to lead a protest movement was a most extraordinary situation in an Islamic country with authoritarian and patriarchal traditions.
The government initially responded with a characteristically strong hand, arresting and beating up protesters. There were allegations that some of them were raped. But it did not stop the women.
In February 2019, things got so bad that al-Bashir declared a state of National Emergency.
It did not halt the slide of power from his grasp.
On the 11th of April 2019, the army of Sudan carried out a coup d’etat and removed President al-Bashir from power. A State of Emergency was declared, which was to be followed by a transition period, leading eventually to a restoration of civilian rule.
The military government suspended the Constitution and imposed a curfew, banning street protests.
But the women’s protests continued.
The new military government, responding to their demands, announced it would shorten its rule to ‘one month’.
The new military head of state announced his resignation, and another soldier, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, a man who supposedly had a cleaner record than most of his peers, took his place. The change of baton was seen as a victory by the protesters.
While dialogue with civilian protesters continued about the formation of a civilian government, a sit-in street protest continued.
A decision was made to form a Transitional Council made up of soldiers and civilians.
Despite the efforts to pacify the civil society, the relationship between the Transitional Government and the female protesters remained tetchy.
The sit-ins continued, to the increasing consternation of soldiers, who were not used to being defied.
In June 2019, in what was dubbed the Khartoum Massacre, 128 protesters were killed by the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF)- a group that had been formed during the time of former president al-Bashir. Dozens of women were reportedly raped.
One prominent heroine of the Sudan street protest movement was a white-clad lady named Kandake. The image of her standing on a car while she exhorted the demonstrators, became an international emblem of female struggle for freedom, dignity and justice.
Sadly, the peace and democracy sought by the protesters became more elusive with every passing day.
A Sovereignty Council of Sudan was formed to succeed a Transitional Military Council. Eventually exasperation set in, and al-Burhan arrested the civilian members of the Council, who were accused of being recalcitrant.
Sudan gradually descended into chaos.
Nothing could have been further from the dreams of the women who went out on the streets to protest against al-Bashir. Beside the hideous brutality that was to follow, al-Bashir and his tyrannical government looked, in retrospect, like choir boys.
What emerged over time was a power struggle between the two soldiers who were supposed to lead Sudan back to democracy, peace and prosperity. The head of the recognised military government of Sudan was the same General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. The man next to him, who became his implacable adversary, was General Hemedti, head of the Rapid Support Forces. Each man was convinced that he was entitled to become the undisputed leader of Sudan. After a half-hearted attempt to integrate the RSF into the regular Sudanese Army, things rapidly fell apart. Soon, the gloves were off in open battle.
It has proved to be a long and bloody fight which has ripped apart the nation of Sudan and brought its very humanity into question. And it has led to what may be the worst man-made humanitarian crisis in modern history. 12 million people have been displaced from their homes. Of these, three and a half million have fled outside the country. Eight and a half million are internally displaced. More than 150,000 Sudanese have been killed. 25 million out of the total population of 50 million in the country are affected by famine. Four million children are acutely malnourished, of whom 770,000 face imminent death. There are shortages of water and medicines in different parts of the country. There are atrocities galore, especially in the city of Al Fasher, which was recently captured by the RSF after a long and bitter siege. Rape and looting are routinely visited on the hapless civilian population.
Human misery on an unprecedented scale has been the fallout from Sudan’s women’s protests to bring justice to their long-suffering country.
Sudan has faced 20 coup attempts since independence in 1956 and has been ruled by the military for most of its troubled existence. It has already faced two Civil Wars that led to the deaths of almost two million people and the birth of another still-troubled nation, Southern Sudan.
Sudan is fighting for its life.
The question may be asked – is the democratic, egalitarian Sudan envisioned by Kandake and her female protesters still a possibility, even at this late hour, or has it evaporated for good into the hot desert air, which is heavy with the smell of misery and death?
