SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Financial Times - Military leaders in Sudan and Algeria slow the shift to democracy

28/4/19: Financial Times – Military leaders in Sudan and Algeria slow the shift to democracy, by David Pilling and Heba Saleh

 David Pilling and Heba Saleh question the next step in Sudan and Algeria, where “some find it hard to believe that the military ejected longtime rulers in order simply to hand over power to civilians.”

 In Sudan, it is feared that the military could backslide if a transition to democracy is not quickly cemented. Prominent journalist Osman Mirghani is quoted saying “we are powerful now because we have those people on the street... but once those people withdraw, the army will not talk to us.”

 Pilling and Saleh state that the paradox for Sudanese and Algerian democracy activists is their need to negotiate “with the very forces that propped up the old regime,” in order to avert a situation as in Egypt, whereby the army-controlled transition following Hosni Mubarak’s ousting saw Abdel Fattah Al Sisi emerge as a new authoritarian leader.