Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across Sudan on the one-year anniversary of the Sudanese military coup – the October 2021 overthrow of the civilian-military transitional government which came to power following the April 2019 coup ouster of long-time Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir.
Protesters gathered including the capital of Khartoum, Port Sudan, Kasala, and other cities and towns, protesting military rule, raging inflation, and skyrocketing food prices and shortages which have hit Sudan and other African nations this year amid the crisis in Ukraine – which has seen Western countries hoard Ukrainian grain and slap restrictions on Russia’s ability to export its foodstuffs abroad.
Demonstrators carried banners (including Sudan’s pre-1970 blue, yellow and green national flag) and placards, and shouted anti-government slogans. Western media covering the events reported that the military has used tear gas to disperse protesters outside the presidential palace. The military also reportedly set up barricades on city streets and restricted internet traffic in a bid to limit coordination between demonstrators.
The widespread protests come on the heels of US warnings to Khartoum last month not to ramp up cooperation with Russia.
“All countries have a sovereign right to decide which other countries to partner with, but these choices have consequences, of course,” US Ambassador John Godfrey told local media in September. Criticizing Khartoum over its agreement with Moscow on the Red Sea naval resupply and maintenance base at Port Sudan, the ambassador suggested that the facility was “harmful to Sudan’s interests.”
Moscow and Khartoum reached an agreement on the base in late 2020, with the facility designed to be able to host four warships simultaneously. The first Russian frigate docked at Port Sudan in March 2021.
The envoy also suggested that Washington could be a “good partner” to Khartoum, but only if the military facilitated the creation of a new civilian-led administration, and a transitional framework that puts the country back “on the path of democracy.”
Moscow retorted Godfrey. “The American ambassador, like his predecessors, is trying to speak to the Sudanese people in the language of threats and ultimatums regarding Khartoum’s implementation of its sovereign foreign policy,” the Embassy wrote in a Facebook* post.
Russia will continue to further develop bilateral cooperation with Sudan “on the principles of mutual respect and equality, which, unfortunately, are constantly neglected by Washington,” the mission added.
At a press conference last week, State Department spokesman Ned Price expressed Washington’s commitment “to helping the Sudanese people achieve the goals” of the 2019 “revolution,” and urged “all Sudanese actors to engage constructively in ongoing negotiations toward establishing a civilian-led transition.”
Last month, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Transitional Government of Sudan President Abdel-Fattah Al Burhan expressed appreciation to Russia for its stance toward Sudan, and expressed “hope [that] relations develop in a way that achieves the objectives.”
Ahead of Tuesday’s violence, Sudan has seen smaller weekly protests against military rule throughout the past year, with over 160 people killed in the violence and hundreds more injured.
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