In early April, protesters forced the departure of Omar al Bashir after 30 years as ruler of Sudan. Bashir was in fact toppled by his own military after almost five months of protests triggered by a rise in food prices, but which later grew into a movement denouncing Bashir’s corrupt, brutal rule.
After testing the protesters’ firm resolve, the military, which had stood by Bashir shooting and teargassing demonstrators, decided to end the 74 year old’s rule and arrested him.
Suspicious of the men in uniform, the protesters have refused to go home. They have stayed camped at the defence ministry headquarters in Khartoum, urging the generals to surrender power to a civilian administration.
As Sudan’s revolution faces the real threat of failure, it is the response and (in)action of the African Union that’s most interesting.
The body has been vague, inconsistent, reactive and utterly inept at responding to developments in Sudan that when it finally did, it had lost all leverage and could not keep up with a very fluid situation that needed huge resources; diplomatic and otherwise to stay on top.
Hence, the chance to influence post-Bashir developments in Sudan was lost to mostly Gulf powers Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and Sudan’s northern neighbor, Egypt.
The AU exhibited a terrible misreading of events and put its obsolete, unresponsive diplomacy on show. While security forces cracked down on protests, killing unarmed youths and medics, the bloc remained quiet, probably praying that the violence would be too swift to get the pesky demonstrators off the streets.
While the European Union and the USA urged an end to the violence, the African Union looked on as if all was well in Khartoum and Omudurman.
Even when it became apparent that Bashir’s rule was nearing its end, the AU, in characteristic fashion, failed to cultivate the much needed diplomatic clout, to make contacts, ceding the chance to lead to Gulf powers and other players.
So much for reforms that President Paul Kagame touted as the organization’s chairman.
AU’s confusing signals after Bashir’s ouster
When Bashir fell on April 11th, the organization reacted, as expected, by condemning the coup. It followed the condemnation, a few days later, with a threat to suspend Sudan if it failed to “return to civilian rule in 15 days”.
It took two weeks for Moussa Faki Mahamat, the AU commission chairman to move from Addis Ababa to Khartoum, to meet General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, leader of the ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC).
As talks between the military rulers and the protest movement appear to make little headway, the AU still seems unsure how to respond. While Gulf players scramble pledging aid hoping to influence them, the bloc is utterly stuck. If and when a new (may be even worse) Sudan emerges from these talks, the AU would have made no contribution and lost a chance to make one, ever.
Cairo emergency summit
Two weeks ago, select African leaders convened in Cairo for an ‘emergency summit’ to discuss events in Sudan and Libya. The republics of South Africa, Djibouti, Congo, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, Chad, Nigeria and of course Egypt (host and current AU chairman) constituted the summit.
When it adjourned after two days, the leaders had adopted a resolution giving the generals in Khartoum three more months to hand over power to civilian authorities. Sigh.
The junta was recently given sixty more days.
More than just arrogance, the African Union showed disrespect to the Sudanese people and their aspirations for democratic rule. If you badly want Sudan to revert to civilian rule, why give the army more time to entrench itself?
Broadly speaking, the choice of the heads of state that gathered in Cairo (never mind the venue) was ominous. All of them, save for south Africa, are leaders of countries which are not free and cannot be expected to want democracy in Khartoum. If anything, they hold just contempt for the protesters in Khartoum.
Cairo, where the summit sat, was the stage for a bloody coup in July of 2014 when Egypt’s first democratically elected president was overthrown. The leader of that coup, Abdel Fattah el Sisi, also the current AU head, has since banned political parties, imprisoned activists and journalists and sentenced opposition politicians to death. As he and colleagues discussed Sudan, he extended his autocratic rule until 2030 in a sham vote.
The ruler of Congo, Denis Sassou Nguesso too came to power through a coup and has since extended his brutal and corrupt rule through sham elections. The opposition in his country is virtually absent, with activists in jail. He has squandered his country’s oil wealth and cannot be expected to wish any good for Sudan.
Chadian president, Idris Deby, has stifled the opposition and banned protests in his country. For over a year, he has shut down the internet in his country. That the AU commission chairman is also Chadian is another scandal. Deby and his cronies have stolen Chad’s oil wealth and cracked down hard on dissent. Him and Bashir were comrades in oppression. That he is invited to discuss the future of Sudan, only the AU knows.
Away from Cyril Ramaphosa, all the other leaders presented or represented in Cairo belong to an exclusive club of strongmen with no interest in democracy.
Uganda’s president, who was represented at the summit by his foreign affairs minister, has been in power since 1986, having toppled an elected government. He has since held on to power through sham elections. Recently, he amended the constitution to be able to rule for ever. He has brutalized, killed and imprisoned those opposed to his inept, corrupt rule.
As his neighbor on the south-west border, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame. Famous for suppressing the opposition in his country, Kagame was represented at the Cairo summit by his foreign minister.
The choice of the leaders that sat in Cairo was wrong at most and a show of the AU’s indifference at worst. It must feel, and rightly so, like betrayal to the Sudanese people that the same men who cheered on their oppressor are the same ones that sat to decide Sudan’s future.
This sloppy show is also an important indicator that the AU is in no rush to reform and certainly won’t pressurize membership countries to embrace change.
The African Union has lost a massive chance to do good with Sudan. It should sit back, reflect and seek to do better when another Sudan happens.
By Ronald Kato, journalist and China-Africa Press Centre Fellow
Newer articles:
- South Sudan shuts down nightclubs for 'immoral acts' - 12/05/2019 05:50
- South Sudan: Is the Peace Deal in South Sudan Holding? - 12/05/2019 01:57
- Pope says he may add South Sudan leg onto Africa trip - 10/05/2019 06:38
- Sudan-South Sudan Relations and the Fall of Al-Bashir - 09/05/2019 23:40
- South Sudanese people long for peace as key deadline passes - 09/05/2019 21:14
Older news items
- South Sudan says troops deployment not linked to calls for protests - 09/05/2019 18:00
- No justice for South Sudan - 09/05/2019 14:13
- South Sudan: Arms Embargo Flouted - 09/05/2019 11:51
- South Sudan's Kiir: More Time Needed to Form Interim Government - 08/05/2019 16:36
- South Sudan president says formation of unity government should be delayed a year - 08/05/2019 15:38
Latest news items (all categories):
- The Collo Kingdom Remains Underdeveloped: Five Hundred Years Later! - 03/02/2025 12:57
- Attack on South Sudan cattle camps kills 35 - 03/02/2025 12:46
- في صفقة مثيرة.. الإمارات تشتري نفط الجنوب في باطن الأرض لمدة 20 عامًا - 03/02/2025 12:42
- South Sudan: Can oil production save the economy? - 30/01/2025 19:27
- 20 oil workers and crew die in South Sudan plane crash - 30/01/2025 19:20
Random articles (all categories):
- South Sudan's inter-communal clashes kill at least 27 - 17/08/2021 09:34
- Water and Sanitation Engineers - South Sudan - Reuters AlertNet - 02/04/2012 11:04
- Kenya chairs IGAD Quartet Ministerial Meeting - 20/06/2023 01:41
- South Sudan and the War of 1812 - Blogcritics.org (blog) - 05/04/2012 19:54
- New Midwives, Some Male, Want to Reduce Maternal Mortality in South Sudan - 14/12/2018 05:40
Popular articles:
- Who is the darkest person in the world, according to Guinness World Record? - 25/10/2022 02:34 - Read 67684 times
- No oil in troubled waters - 25/03/2014 15:02 - Read 22360 times
- School exam results in South Sudan show decline - 01/04/2012 17:58 - Read 21558 times
- Top 10 weakest currency exchange rates in Africa in 2023 - 19/07/2023 00:24 - Read 19210 times
- NDSU student from South Sudan receives scholarship - In-Forum - 29/09/2012 01:44 - Read 19199 times