SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Washington Post - How will the African Union respond to the military overthrow in Sudan?
24/4/19: Washington Post- How will the African Union respond to the military overthrow in Sudan?, by Emmanuel Balogun and Anna Kapambwe Mwaba
Emmanuel Balogun, an assistant professor of International Relations at Webster University, and Anna Kapambwe Mwaba, a lecturer in government at Smith College, argue that it is unclear whether the African Union will offer strong support for “the will of Sudanese citizens” to replace the military council with a civilian one, citing the AU's inconsistent application of its self-declared commitment to rejecting unconstitutional changes.
Balogun and Mwaba highlight a 2014 AU report which acknowledged that it must consistently apply its standards to all members, including comparatively powerful states such as Egypt following its 2013 military coup, rather than only taking a strong stance against unconstitutional changes on “weaker” members such as Madagascar in 2010 and Guinea Bissau in 2012.
Since 2014 however, the AU has followed its guidelines following coup attempts in Burkina Faso (2014) and Burundi (2015), but not Gambia (2016) and Zimbabwe (2017).