SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Telegraph - Sudan's last elected leader calls on Britain to help build democracy on the Nile

12/5/19: Telegraph – Sudan’s last elected leader calls on Britain to help build democracy on the Nile, by Roland Oliphant

Interviewing Sudan’s last democratically elected Prime Minister Sadiq Al Mahdi, The Telegraph’s senior foreign correspondent Roland Oliphant reports on Al Mahdi’s vision for a Sudanese liberal democracy with a healthy welfare state, an Islamic identity that accounts for Sudan’s diversity, and an internationalist outlook.

Al Mahdi proposed that Britain help modernize Sudan’s economy to achieve this goal, adding that the British colonialists “established a modern state with an efficient civil service, a modern economy…viable local government, [and] respected many aspects of Sudanese society,” and that there is “a basis for a special bilateral relationship, especially with education [and] training.”

Oliphant notes that that many young Sudanese protesters are not enthusiastic about Al Mahdi or his Umma Party, although Al Mahdi said that his party would get a majority under free elections.