Qualla: 2019 Sudanese coup d'état

2019 Sudanese coup d'état: Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Obai Alsadig, CC BY-SA 4.0. The protests began, in December 2018, over bread. The price of a loaf had tripled. For Sudanese living on already-crushed salaries in an economy collapsing under sanctions and the loss of South Sudan's oil revenue, the bread price became the detail that tipped four months of patience into four months of sustained, organized, coordinated resistance. By April 2019, the Sudanese Professionals Association had choreographed daily sit-ins outside army headquarters in Khartoum, and the women leading chants on the shoulders of protesters were visible on every front page of the international press. On 11 April the military finally acted. Omar al-Bashir's thirty-year rule was over.

Image: Obai Alsadig | CC BY-SA 4.0

2019 Sudanese coup d'état: Four Months on the Street

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Obai Alsadig, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Sudanese Revolution that culminated in April 2019 did not begin in April. It began on 19 December 2018 in the city of Atbara - a railway town with a long union history - when demonstrations broke out over the rising cost of bread and fuel. The protests spread. In January they...

Image: Obai Alsadig | CC BY-SA 4.0

2019 Sudanese coup d'état: The Generals Fold

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Obai Alsadig, CC BY-SA 4.0. On the afternoon of 11 April 2019, the Sudanese military removed al-Bashir as president, dissolved the cabinet and the National Legislature, and declared a three-month state of emergency to be followed by a two-year transition period. Lt. Gen. Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf - both Defense Mi...

Image: Obai Alsadig | CC BY-SA 4.0

2019 Sudanese coup d'état: The Khartoum Massacre

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Obai Alsadig, CC BY-SA 4.0. The transition was not peaceful. On 3 June 2019, Sudanese security forces and the Rapid Support Forces - the paramilitary successor to the Janjaweed - attacked the main sit-in outside army headquarters in Khartoum. At least 87 people were killed. Dozens of women were raped. Bodie...

Image: Obai Alsadig | CC BY-SA 4.0

2019 Sudanese coup d'état: The Transitional Government

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Obai Alsadig, CC BY-SA 4.0. A deal was agreed verbally between the Transitional Military Council and the civilian protesters represented by the Forces of Freedom and Change on 5 July 2019. A written agreement was signed on 17 July. On 3 August, terms for a transitional government and new constitution were f...

Image: Obai Alsadig | CC BY-SA 4.0

2019 Sudanese coup d'état: From the Air

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Obai Alsadig, CC BY-SA 4.0. The army headquarters compound in central Khartoum - the ground where the sit-in unfolded, where Alaa Salah sang, where the 3 June massacre happened - sits just west of the Blue Nile in the heart of the capital. The Presidential Palace is a short walk away. The streets that fille...

Image: Obai Alsadig | CC BY-SA 4.0