The crowd seems endless in front of the army headquarters. This April 11, the Sudanese shared, from social networks, the pictures of this historic day. Four years have passed since the ousting of dictator Omar al-Bashir, who has been at the top of the state for thirty years. The Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC), the coalition of civilians negotiating for several months with the putschist generals, wanted to match this anniversary date with the appointment of a government, the first since the October 25 coup. 2021. But this deadline has, unsurprisingly, not been honored. Many members of the resistance committees, these local pro-democracy branches deployed throughout the territory, prefer to follow their own agenda rather than make a pact once again with the military and risk yet another betrayal.
“We cannot continue to be governed by the military or by the same people who killed us”, slice Mina Abdelkarim, referring to the 125 victims of the fierce repression orchestrated by the police since the putsch. But also to the women and men murdered during the December 2018 revolution and the June 3, 2019 sit-in massacre that left dozens, if not hundreds, of bodies missing. This biomedical engineering student, member of a resistance committee in Khartoum, therefore declares herself ready to demonstrate even if the signatories of the December 5 agreement reach a final pact and appoint a government.
On the sidelines of a nocturnal procession to announce the procession of April 6, the anniversary of the start of the sit-in that accelerated Bashir’s fall, Mina Abdelkarim specifies that she is acting “at the level of the smallest neighborhoods through modest gatherings to raise awareness [ their] charter neighbours”. This document, entitled “Revolutionary Charter of People’s Power”, is the result of painstaking work of consultation between the resistance committees of the different states of Sudan. He advocates the development of a horizontal power structure in order to restore political and economic weight to citizens.
The resistance committees thus intend to make democracy accessible to each resident of this giant of the Horn of Africa. On this evening of Monday, March 20, in the eastern suburbs of Khartoum, the courtyard of a primary school hosts a debate in a very small committee. The reflection focuses on the role of women in the unions and in the revolutionary process. Sarah Haj, ten years of trade unionism on the clock, evokes the obstacles preventing Sudanese women from getting involved in these movements.
“Especially once married, because they become responsible for raising the children, maintaining the household, etc., observes this employee of the University of Bahri. Even in resistance committees, men make it harder for women to get involved by holding meetings in flats rented by single men, where women don’t feel safe…” A communist activist retorts that feminist struggle is a disservice to the global struggle for rights. “It’s divide and conquer politics,” he told a skeptical gathering.
About ten days later, the reform of the security sector is at the heart of a conference organized in a public square, at the other end of the capital, in the neighboring city of Omdurman. “We must first rethink how the military is trained. They are currently being taught how to belittle citizens they themselves are supposedly superior to. These students should on the contrary learn what nationality means and to respect the native inhabitants of all the regions of Sudan”, intervenes the professor of philosophy Magdi Ezzeddine Hassan.
A few hours before, the last of the five workshops that were supposed to finalize the framework agreement of December 5 closed. But the efforts of the civilians did not allow the army and the formidable militia of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to agree on the duration of the integration of the militiamen into the ranks of the first. “The military elites have no interest whatsoever in the establishment of a democratic transition and transitional justice,” admits Mahi Rabih, one of these pro-democracy civilians. As a member of the political bureau of the Sudanese Congress Party and former director of personnel in the ministry of cabinet affairs during the transition period interrupted by the putsch, this architect nevertheless hopes for the formation of a government after Ramadan, i.e. end of April.
“If the military junta continues to follow the political process, it will put an end to the crisis triggered by the coup. But there are no guarantees. The military are likely to leave these negotiations at any second,” warns Walialdin Alhadi. This economics student is both active in a resistance committee and a member of the Oumma party, one of the pillars of the FFC.
His opinion is therefore mixed. While other demonstrators chant, during the march of this April 6, slogans on the blood of the martyrs that the FFC would have sold by initialing the framework agreement of December. “Sudan is sinking into a dangerous political crisis. Khartoum is filling up with armies and militias. If the political parties and the resistance committees do not unite, the situation risks degenerating and our country will collapse”, warns Walialdin Alhadi, before breaking his fast, thanks to the juices and sandwiches distributed by the resistance committees in the “airport street”, in the center of Khartoum.
On April 12, local sources report an escalation between the army and RSF near Merowe airport, in the north of the country. Two days before, an iftar (breaking the Ramadan fast) organized by the resistance committees in the north of the capital in honor of the “martyr” Muhammad Abdel Salam, known as “Medo”, one of the first victims of the coup d State, was attacked with live ammunition and Molotov cocktails by supporters of the old regime. The Islamists remain the main allies of the army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. He is the central craftsman of the putsch and the one who seems the least in a hurry to reach an agreement to turn the page.