2021 saw coups d’état across the world, from West Africa to Southeast Asia
But the reverberations of 2021 political takeovers are continuing into the new year in Sudan, Myanmar and elsewhere. On Sunday, just two months after being reinstated by military leaders, Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok announced his resignation.
“I tried as much as I could to avoid our country from sliding into disaster,” he said in an address to the nation.
Hamdok’s short-lived return to office dashed many hopes that Sudan’s coup leaders could turn toward democracy. The former United Nations official had become prime minister in August 2019 following the fall of longtime authoritarian ruler Omar Hassan al-Bashir in April of that year. He had been charged with leading the country’s transition to post-Bashir elections this year. Instead, amid increasingly fractious relations with Sudan’s powerful military, he was ousted on Oct. 25, 2021, and placed under house arrest.
In an apparent response to the international condemnation that greeted Sudan’s coup — plus the suspension of millions of dollars in international assistance — Hamdok was reinstated to the position in November. But as The Post’s Max Bearak and Miriam Berger wrote this weekend, his relations with the military remained fractious, while the protesters who had ousted Bashir were angered that demands for a fully civilian government went unmet.
What comes next for Sudan is not clear. Medic groups aligned with the protest movement say that at least 57 civilians have already died since the coup amid a government crackdown on demonstrations, Reuters reported Monday. Protesters argue their demands are simple. “Are we asking for something so complicated — a competent, civilian government?” Samuel Dafallah, a 51-year-old protest leader told The Post last month.
