A brutal military crackdown has upended countless lives but has not broken the spirit of the pro-democracy movement
But while the crackdown has upended countless lives, it has not broken the spirit of the pro-democracy movement.
Six months ago, Sudan’s military staged a coup that put an end to Sudan’s frail democratic transition that had begun with the removal of longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir three years ago.
“We know the security forces are trying to put us through all sorts of pain … to make us wonder whether our cause is worth suffering for,” Dania Atabani, 22, told Al Jazeera.
Members of the resistance committees – neighborhood groups driving the protests through coordinating nationwide marches – say the brutal repression has only hardened their opposition to military rule and pledge to to step up demonstrations after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan concludes next week
“But we have reached the point of no return.”
Since the coup, members from the National Congress Party (NCP), which al-Bashir founded in 1998, have been released from prison and reappointed to senior positions in the intelligence service and state bureaucracy. Others have also retrieved millions of dollars worth of assets which were confiscated during the democratic transition.
Kholood Khair, a Sudanese expert who heads Insight Strategy Partners, a think-tank in the capital, Khartoum, told Al Jazeera that coup leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan is relying on the NCP to whip up a constituency ahead of a possible election next year.
However, the NCP’s anti-Israel rhetoric could become a thorny issue for al-Burhan since the military has a budding security partnership with the Israeli government. The NCP’s ties with the Muslim Brotherhood could also unsettle Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, both of which ideologically detest the movement.
“The [NCP] are useful for Burhan, but he knows that he can’t rely on them solely because it will make Cairo and Abu Dhabi very antsy,” said Khair.
