General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane arrested civilians in the transitional government in Sudan. He says he wants to get the country back on track.
In April 2019, he was the one through whom the big household in Sudan had to go. On April 11 of that year, Omar al-Bechir was overthrown in a coup after four months of popular protests. Under civilian pressure, the army decided to overturn the established order. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane quickly became the strongman of the country. A respected military man, he had announced numerous dismissals, especially within the intelligence services.
In the aftermath of the fall of al-Bechir, Abdel Fattah al-Burhane was sworn in, after another general, Aouad Ibn Aouf, had taken the head of the Transitional Military Council from which he had resigned, less than twenty-four hours after taking office. Unlike Ibn Aouf, al-Burhane did not represent the al-Bechir regime. In reality, he had simply never been in the limelight, but was indeed one of the strongmen of the Sudanese dictator.
A strong man from Omar al-Bechir
Abdel Fattah al-Burhane is a high-ranking leader of men, who knows how to be respected. Passed by Beijing, but also by Yemen, the military has a recognized course. But in April, observers suspected him of having "links with the Gulf countries". However, it was his apolitical profile and his lack of notoriety that attracted specialists. Especially since Abdel Fattah al-Burhane is not known to be a bloodthirsty soldier and would even have the stature of a statesman.
Although he is an ally of the military junta, the general has often shown signs of openness towards civilians. But his duo with the number 2 of the Sovereignty Council, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, does not necessarily make you optimistic: the latter commands the paramilitaries of the powerful Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which were involved in the 2019 repression.
Towards a military government?
By being the strong man of new coup in Sudan, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane does not profoundly change the face of the transition. Except that he, with the help of the army, arrested civilians who were part of the transition, and in particular Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok. If he has reinstated the state of emergency in Sudan, al-Burhane promises above all to "correct the course of the transition".
And within the Sudanese population, the general divides: if he promises to put civilians back at the center of the transition, necessarily accompanied by a strong military delegation, for the anti-army demonstrators, al-Burhane wants on the contrary to establish a exclusively military government, which would bring Sudan back to the era of Omar al-Bechir. The general assures us that, at the end of 2023, a civilian government will emerge. But until then, time is still long and everything can change in a decidedly politically very fragile country.