In Frames | Generals in a labyrinth

Sudan is the first child of the spirit of Bandung. In 1955, leaders from countries that were colonised until then gathered in the Indonesian hill station of Bandung and gave the call for decolonisation of the developing world. The conference ended on a high note but then no one really thought that the call of the newly independent countries like India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Burma (Myanmar) and Egypt would necessarily bear fruit. In January 1956, Sudan was born. The birth of an independent Sudan boosted decolonisation in Africa and soon Morocco, Tunisia and others attained independence.

Sudan is the first child of the spirit of Bandung. In 1955, leaders from countries that were colonised until then gathered in the Indonesian hill station of Bandung and gave the call for decolonisation of the developing world. The conference ended on a high note but then no one really thought that the call of the newly independent countries like India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Burma (Myanmar) and Egypt would necessarily bear fruit. In January 1956, Sudan was born. The birth of an independent Sudan boosted decolonisation in Africa and soon Morocco, Tunisia and others attained independence.

Despite such a promising start, Sudan has remained caught in conflict and instability from the beginning. The latest crisis in Sudan stems from a dispute over sharing state power in the aftermath of the overthrow of long-term dictator Omar Al-Bashir who ruled Sudan for three decades.

The seeds of the crisis lay in the cast of characters who emerged after the departure of Al-Bashir. As per the 2019 agreement between the civilian and the military groups, Sudan was expected to become a democracy through a transitional period in which both the civilian and the military figures were to have positions of authority. There were discordant notes from the beginning.

Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who heads the powerful Rapid Support Forces, was from the previous regime who helped Al-Bashir quell the rebellion in Darfur in the early 2000s. After 2019, his influence kept growing making the Sudanese military under the leadership of General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan uncomfortable. The two powerful wings of the Sudanese state came close to clashing in March when it became clear that General Burhan wanted the RSF to be merged into the Sudanese Armed Forces, which would ultimately come under civilian authority.

The two wings further disagreed on the time frame for heading into civilian rule. General Burhan wanted a shorter timeline and Dagalo wanted a longer period. As these differences persisted, tensions escalated leading to the all-out violence where both sides unleashed their arsenal on each other, killing many unarmed civilians and displacing thousands including the bulk of Sudan’s foreign workers.

Text by Kallol Bhattacherjee.