Journalist Mohanad Hashim Gives an Update on Sudan

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Can you give us a sense of why this is happening now, why this coup is happening right now? We know that, in just a few weeks, the Sudanese people were expected to have their first civilian-led government since 1989. So should we have seen the warning signs leading up to this?

MOHANAD HASHIM, FREELANCE JOURNALIST: Hi, Bianna. Well, it’s — in one way, it’s simple to say this was inevitable. The writing has been on the wall since June the 3rd, 2019, when the military tried to — when General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan tried to stage his first coup, had a very strong crackdown back then on civilian protesters who were holding a peaceful sitting outside the army headquarters. Subsequently, the political class went into an agreement with the military in July 2019 that culminated in the constitutional document, which governs this transitional period. But there and then, that was the problem, is because, as people label it, that was a partnership of blood. And, eventually, it led to the normal conclusion that we saw on Monday. It was surprising that it happened so fast after high-level visits from the U.S.’ most senior envoy to the Horn, Mr. Jeffrey Feltman, was in Khartoum on Sunday night, and he was in direct talks with the generals. And only hours after he left Khartoum, the takeover happens. I mean, the thing we need to understand is that the military has been stalling and trying to suffocate this transitional period, and putting all sorts of obstacles in the place for its civilian partners all along. And if we go back just recently, I was in Khartoum when — a month ago, when a coup attempt was declared then. And it has set this creeping momentum that ultimately culminated in the tanks being rolled out and the horrible brutality that we’re seeing at the moment in the streets of Khartoum and in other cities across Sudan.