Where’s the African Union as Sudan suffers?

June 20, 2019June 25, 2019 agn 0 Comments African Union, Egypt, Sudan

There’s a crisis unfolding in Sudan, and at times such as these, one would hope that the African Union would be at the forefront of resolving the political crisis.

In early June, scores of Sudanese protestors were killed after security forces violently dispersed their sit-in in front of the military headquarters. This image laments their almost forgotten deaths.

Yet the crisis continues to spiral towards a catastrophe, and it doesn’t seem like the African Union will step up. Sure, it did announce the suspension of Sudan’s membership, but that is clearly an impotent gesture at best.

After all, numerous other nations have had their membership to the African Union suspended, but restored afterwards.

The African Union is supposed to help in the integration of the continent, and to set what is effectively a peer-review system encouraging only the best governance policies, but most of its history so far suggests otherwise.

We don’t have to far to see this, as its chairman is after all the Egyptian President, Abdel Fatah el-Sisi.

President Sisi, you may recall, emerged as the face of the coup against Muhammad Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected leader. Morsi had only a brief tenure, lasting about a year, before protests against him in 2013 were used by the Egyptian military as an excuse to oust him.

Morsi is dead, having been detained since his overthrow. He fainted in court, died and was buried not long after. This happened this week, and was just another item in a list of atrocities that have occurred under Sisi, who was Morsi’s Defense Minister. Ever the military man, Sisi made sure to rise to Field Marshall before claiming the presidency.

He was Defense Minister, and in command of the disciplined forces, when they descended upon sit-in protestors in Rabaa Square. These were pro-Morsi supporters silently protesting the coup that had taken place in July 2013.

Rabaa Square, before and after the violent breakup of the sit-in

On 14^th August 2013, the 85,000 odd protestors were violently dispersed, leading to some 800 deaths.

Live ammunition, armored carriers, army tanks were used.

So why would anyone be surprised if the military junta in Sudan replicated the same brutal tactics that were so effective in neighboring Egypt, when the sitting president benefited from that rubble of broken bones and lost lives to ascend to the highest office? And everywhere he goes, the red carpet is rolled out for him, despite the memories of Rabaa being only 6 years old?

Sudan seems to have borrowed the script from its northern neighbor; Omar Bashir is in court, the military in power, and civilians are being violently suppressed. I won’t be surprised if some referendum is passed to further entrench the military junta in a pseudo-civilian form of government.