SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Atlantic Council – Coronavirus comes to Sudan

30/3/2020: Atlantic Council – Coronavirus comes to Sudan, by Cameron Hudson

 Atlantic Council Senior Fellow Cameron Hudson assesses the political costs of the coronavirus in Sudan, raising the prospects of military rule being restored.

 Hudson writes that “some in Sudan’s international ‘Friends Group’” are concerned by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok’s “timid response” to the crisis, warning that the democratic transition may stall unless Hamdok fails to reassure a worried public, skeptical donor community, and an unreformed security sector that he can rally a national response to the coronavirus crisis.

 Hudson further suggests that Arab Gulf and Western governments are likely to revisit development budgets as they turn to their domestic response efforts to coronavirus, arguing that “profoundly aid-dependent countries like Sudan have to reconcile themselves to the likelihood that even pledged assistance funds might not materialise this year” with a “go-it-alone approach” possibly needing to be contemplated.