SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Washington Post - Generals overthrew Sudan's president Bashir, but they can't agree on what comes next
Naunihal Singh, an assistant professor at the national security affairs department at the US Naval War College, examines the instability within Sudan’s transitional military council (TMC), and its implications for democratic transition.
Highlighting the the TMC’s internal divides, Singh notes that the army’s top ranks support the regime and the lower ranks support the protestors protesters, and that Omar Al Bashir’s attempts to mitigate the risks of a military coup have left the different TMC security organisations in a state of mutual distrust.
Nonetheless, Singh notes that the western powers can use Sudan’s situation as leverage in calls for democracy, raising the possibility of the US conditioning the removal of Sudan’s state sponsor of terror designation on the formation of a civilian government, and supporting the democracy movement by pursuing the overseas assets of corrupt Al Bashir regime officials. Singh concludes that this would be in the US national interest.