Sudan: Political deal to restore democratic transition postponed again

The agreement between civilians, military and paramilitary supposed to restart the democratic transition in Sudan after the 2021 putsch has been postponed again, civilians said on Wednesday evening, calling for demonstrations on Thursday, the anniversary of anti-putsch uprisings.

Already postponed last week, the signing of the framework agreement providing for a return to power sharing between civilians and the military, a sine qua non for the resumption of international aid to the country, one of the poorest in the world, will not take place as planned on Thursday, the historic civilian bloc Forces for Freedom and Change (FLC) said in a statement.

"The signing has been postponed due to the resumption of talks between the military (...) on April 1 and 6," the statement said. "Negotiations have made progress on several points, but one final issue has yet to be finalized," it continues, that of the modalities for integrating the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) into the regular troops, according to experts.

It is no longer the conflict between civilians and the military that is keeping Sudan in a state of deadlock, but the rivalry between the country's de facto leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, head of the army and author of the October 25, 2021 coup, and his second in command, General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, known as "Hemedti," who heads the ex-militiamen of the Darfur war and is now grouped into the RSF.

The date of April 6 also corresponds to two major anniversaries for the civil movement in Sudan: that of the revolts which in 1985 and then in 2019 brought down two coup presidents 34 years apart.

On Thursday, the FLC is again calling on all Sudanese to march "peacefully" through all provinces for "freedom, peace and justice", against the military and "the return of the old regime", the Islamo-military dictatorship of Omar al-Bashir, overthrown in 2019, many of whose cadres have regained their posts in the administration thanks to the 2021 putsch.

Anti-push protests have not stopped since the coup, despite a crackdown that has left 125 people dead, according to pro-democracy doctors.

In anticipation of this mobilization, the authorities have declared April 6 a public holiday and a large military deployment was visible on Wednesday in various parts of Khartoum and its suburbs, notably blocking bridges over the Nile, witnesses reported.