SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Guardian – Qur’an and AK-47: the 30-year rule of Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir

11/4/19: Guardian – Qur’an and AK-47: the 30-year rule of Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir, by Jason Burke

The Guardian’s Africa correspondent Jason Burke profiles Omar Al Bashir’s rise through Sudanese military ranks, his presidency, and his eventual downfall.

Burke notes that analysts attribute Al Bashir’s disposition by the army to the secession of oil-rich South Sudan, triggering a “massive” cut in revenues that impeded Al Bashir’s ability to use state resources to buy off his rivals.

Burke notes that the Darfur and South Sudan wars intensified international pressure on Al Bashir, before arguing that his efforts to mitigate the economic crisis by building warmer diplomatic relations with China, the US and key Gulf powers, were “insufficient to stave off disaster.”