Qualla: Republic of Sudan (1985–2019)

Republic of Sudan (1985–2019): Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit image uploaded by Mansoor Ijaz from copy of original letter as submitted to Congressman Lee H. Hamilton, Public domain. The protests that ended Omar al-Bashir's thirty-year rule began on 19 December 2018 over the price of bread. The government had just tripled the cost of basic goods, and people who had endured sanctions, civil war, secession, genocide accusations, and the quiet grinding of an economy with 70 percent inflation decided that they would not endure this, too. For the next four months Sudanese civilians - many of them young, many of them women - filled the streets of Khartoum, Omdurman, Port Sudan, and Atbara. By 11 April 2019, Bashir was under arrest. Between those two dates, ordinary Sudanese lives were the pressure that finally cracked a regime backed by army, intelligence, and foreign patrons.

Image: image uploaded by Mansoor Ijaz from copy of original letter as submitted to Congressman Lee H. Hamilton | Public domain

Republic of Sudan (1985–2019): The Coup That Opened the Door

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mister Jiff, CC BY-SA 4.0. On 6 April 1985, Defence Minister Abdel Rahman Swar al-Dahab removed President Gaafar Nimeiry while Nimeiry was abroad. Nimeiry's sixteen-year rule had ended in mass protests against austerity, fuel shortages, and his imposition of Sharia law - strains that would prove durable. T...

Image: Mister Jiff | CC BY-SA 4.0

Republic of Sudan (1985–2019): Bashir Takes Over

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit USAID Africa Bureau, Public domain. On 30 June 1989, Colonel Omar al-Bashir, with backing from the National Islamic Front, overthrew the civilian government. His Revolutionary Command Council ruled until 1993, when Bashir dissolved it and declared himself president. He imposed Sharia nationwide, hardened the war ag...

Image: USAID Africa Bureau | Public domain

Republic of Sudan (1985–2019): Darfur

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jesse B. Awalt/Released, Public domain. In early 2003, rebel movements in Sudan's western region of Darfur - the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement - rose against the central government, accusing Khartoum of deliberately neglecting the region. The government's response was to arm Arab milit...

Image: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jesse B. Awalt/Released | Public domain

Republic of Sudan (1985–2019): The South Leaves

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jesse B. Awalt/Released, Public domain. The civil war in the south - the one al-Mahdi had failed to end and Bashir had intensified - finally reached a negotiated settlement in January 2005 at Naivasha in Kenya. The terms gave southern Sudan six years of autonomy and then a referendum on independence. When the referendu...

Image: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jesse B. Awalt/Released | Public domain

Republic of Sudan (1985–2019): Revolution and After

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mister Jiff, CC BY-SA 4.0. The 2018-2019 uprising was driven by Sudanese youth and anchored by neighborhood Resistance Committees that organized protests across the country. Women were at the front - the image of Alaa Salah standing on a car in a white toub, leading chants, became the revolution's most rec...

Image: Mister Jiff | CC BY-SA 4.0