Sudan Feature: Explaining Last Month's Coup Attempt...And What's Next (Elmahdi)

President Omar al-BashirYesterday reports circulated that at least seven army officers had been arrested for plotting a coup against President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. The head of the plot was named as Colonel Al-Tayeb Al-Sayed.

Al-Sayed reportedly warned that unless there are changes in the "leadership" to fix Sudan's problems, then "everyday they will find a coup as there are tens behind us who will try that".

Sudanese activist Yousif Elmahdi writes for Muftah about last month's coup attempt....

Click to read more ...

Sudan Feature: The Activists Who Seek an Uprising (Bayoumy/Dziadosz)

Students protest in Khartoum, 20 June 2012

---

The government denies using excessive force against protesters or carrying out torture, and dismisses the activists as a handful of agitators with little support among the public. Mainstream opposition parties say they sympathize with protesters, but have been lukewarm at best in support.

Still, a hard core of anti-Bashir activists are trying to spark a popular revolt to end his 23-year rule, devising tactics as they go to overcome the many obstacles to public dissent in the vast, ethnically-divided country.

Click to read more ...

Sudan Analysis and Video: Explaining the Latest Protests (Malik and Al Jazeera English)

---

While there have been protests before, most notably during the earlier stages of the Arab spring, something about the current wave feels different. This is not to suggest that it will necessarily translate into a popular revolt that will overthrow the government --- the "stability as a virtue" sentiment still holds strong among the Sudanese populace --- but it is putting pressure on a state that is bankrupt and struggling to fulfil its most basic functions.

The government appears to have run out of ideas, and the willpower to come up with new ones.

Click to read more ...

Sudan Feature: The Protests Revive (Mubarak/Elhassan)

Protests in Khartoum on Wednesday

---

This latest wave of protests, however, feels different. Motivated by economic shocks, protestors, mostly youth and students, are vowing to continue until the regime is toppled, even in the face of brutal resistance by security forces. A mass protest to do just this has been planned for June 30, 2012, the 23^rd anniversary of the National Congress Party’s (NCP) rise to power in the country. Grappling with an annual inflation rate that reached 30.4% in May 2012, the Sudanese can wait no longer for change.

Click to read more ...