Omar Bashir was overthrown and arrested by the Sudanese military forces on Thursday 2019 following a four-month massive demonstration, which rendered the country ungovernable. The demonstrations that started on 19th December in the eastern city of Atbara after the government increased the price of bread by three times grew into a nationwide demonstration that led to the ousting of Bashir’s rule. The 30 years serving president faced charges at the ICC for five counts against humanity, two counts of war crimes, three counts of genocide, among other charges allegedly committed in 2003 to 2008.
Still, the significant question is will Sudan be governable, or it will be a question of replacing a former dictator with another. According to David Ndii, a governable country is one that the level of trust and common feeling run high, and people believe that they are sailing in the same boat, and their government respect the rule of the law. Based on the latter statement, what the Sudan people are experiencing now and back then is far much fetched from governable. A state of emergency will proceed for three months, a curfew from 10 pm to 4 am enforced for at least a month, and all ports remaining closed for 24 hours. The only sigh of relief is that Omar Al –Bashir is in custody, political detainees under Al Bashir rule will be set free, and the former head of the military council Ibn Auf (believed to be Al Bashir successor) stepped down.
Back in 1989, Bashir led a coup against the elected government that put him in the top seat in Sudan, later elected president in 1996. However, his seat in power did not make Sudan governable, and things got even graver for the country, calling the intervention of western powers and other Sudan allies to put the country back in order. The same scenarios repeat itself with the Sudan defense minister releasing a statement on live TV of the replacement of Omar al-Bashir by a military-led transitional council for two years, and an election afterwards. The latter statements do not ogre well to some of the Sudanese, residents who feel that their victory has been robbed and that nothing has or will change as some people loyal to Omar –al Bashir have ascended to power.
However, activists have stood their ground and they swear to continue with the protests if the rule of law is not enforced in Sudan, and the country becomes ungovernable.
Article source
- http://www.africafocus.org/printit/mob-test.php?http://www.africafocus.org/docs10/sud1004b.php
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Omar-Hassan-Ahmad-al-Bashir
- https://www.icc-cpi.int/darfur/albashir
- https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47903332
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