In Sudan, the military’s attempt to distance itself from political negotiations while still maintaining a grip on key governmental powers risks fueling more pro-democracy protests and impeding efforts to ink a power-sharing deal with the country’s civilian groups. On July 4, Sudanese Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan announced the military was withdrawing from the U.N.-backed dialogue process aimed at breaking the country’s political impasse and called on Sudanese pro-democracy groups to start their own talks to form a transitional government. The unexpected announcement came eight months after the military toppled the civilian government of former prime minister Abdalla Hamdok in the October 2021 coup, which has since seen hundreds of thousands of Sudanese take to the streets in protest (more than 100 of whom have so far died in clashes with security forces). Burhan positioned the move as heeding protesters’ calls to reduce the military’s dominance over the political process....
