At the heart of Sudan’s ongoing tragedy lies a familiar travesty.
 |
| General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo heads the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan. Photo: Reuteres/Samir Bol via Al Jazeera |
Many of the coups in the 1950s and 1960s – from Syria to Sudan, through Egypt, Iraq, Yemen and Libya – were led by young officers with lofty visions and high hopes for replacing a dreadful status quo with a better, more prosperous future, free of humiliation and defeat.
But the more recent coups, like that in Algeria in 1992, Egypt in 2013 and Sudan in 2021, lacked vision and ambition beyond merely blocking political change and restoring the appalling status quo ante that favoured military power and privilege.
All these coups have generally ended in disaster regardless of their original goals, and yet the farce continues as generals today stubbornly repeat their predecessors’ follies to no end, alas.
If coups were of any benefit to the state, Sudan would be the most prosperous country in the region. It has had more than a dozen coups and coup attempts since it gained independence in 1958.Al Jazeera
