 For more videos and people's struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Nearly three years ago in 2019, the people of Sudan ousted long-time dictator Omar al-Bashir after months of sustained mass protests. Bashir had come to power through a coup almost 30 years ago. The uprising that led to his overthrow was built on the protests and resistance that developed against his rule over the decades. Last year on October 25, 2021, Sudan witnessed another coup this time by the Sudanese military junta. In response to people's outrage that followed this coup, the military heavily cracked down on protesters. In the months since then pro-democracy protesters have been regularly mobilizing. Over 3,000 have been injured from military action and many have been killed. The Sudanese people who are on the streets are feeling a sense of deja vu as years of progress made after Bashir's ouster seem to have been reversed. What happened in the period between the overthrow of Omar al-Bashir in 2019 to the military coup in 2021? Where does Sudan's fight for democracy stand today? 2019 April. Protests against the Bashir regime had intensified across Sudan since December 2018, which came to be termed as the December Revolution. On April 11, the Sudanese army decided to step in and oust Bashir. But while celebrations were underway across the country, the army announced that it would be taking over control instead of handing power to civilian forces which the people had been demanding. The army stated it will rule the country for a period of two years following which elections would be held. Civilian groups were not willing to accept a military government after just pushing out a dictatorial regime. Civilian protesters represented by the declaration of freedom and change forces continued their protests and pressured the military council to work out a plan to transition into a civilian government. But the military was not ready to give up all power. As negotiations began and faltered multiple times, the military continued to brutally repress protests, injuring and killing several protesters. On June 3, in a particularly brutal crackdown in capital city Khartoum, the rapid security forces and the toruous paramilitary force killed over a hundred people, injured more than 700 and raped many men and women. Still, the civilian forces remained undeterred in their resistance. The key demand of the civilian opposition was a transition period during which the former regime could be uprooted from the state structures and personnel guilty of human rights atrocities could be punished. The final goal was to establish a government under full civilian control. However, before the civilian forces could accomplish this, the centrist and right-leaning parties among the civilian alliance compromised with the military to form a transitional government. In August 2019, the Sovereignty Council was formed, which was the highest body in the transitional government. Five of the 11 members in the Sovereignty Council were from the military. The head of the military junta, General Abdul Fateh al-Burhan, was made the head of the Sovereignty Council and the president of the country. General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of the rapid security forces, was also appointed to this body. The Sovereignty Council, including the military members accused of being responsible for the Khartou massacre, were granted immunity from prosecution. For the post-prime minister, the civilian opposition selected a politically unaffiliated economist Abdullah Hamdoq for the transition period. 2020. In October 2020, after almost a year of negotiations and delays, Sudan's transitional government and the armed rebel alliance, the Sudanese Revolutionary Front, signed a peace deal. The deal sought to end the civil war, which had been going on for decades in the regions of Darfur, Blue Nile, and South Kordofan. The deal stated that members of armed rebel groups would be integrated in the National Army. As a result, the RSF also became a part of the extended joint forces in Sudan. Many militia groups which were not incorporated in the RSF were formally dismissed by the government under popular pressure. But no serious efforts were made to disarm and rehabilitate them. 2021. Since the peace deal had been signed, it was assumed that the violence would come to an end. So in March, the United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur handed over control to the Sudanese Joint Forces and began to withdraw from the country. But as the withdrawal began, multiple waves of violence hit Darfur. The Sudanese Joint Forces left in charge were not very willing to fight the armed militias in defense of the civilians. The peace deal had not provided any solution to the root causes of the violence in the region. But alongside the escalation and violence, a parallel process of strengthening progressive mass movements was also underway. On September 21, a section of the military attempted a coup. The coup was allegedly led by a faction in the army which continued to support the Islamist regime of former dictator Omar al-Bashir. This led to a further intensification of civilian protests. These protests which were being led by the groups including the Sudanese Professionals Association, the Neighborhood Resistance Committees and the Sudanese Communist Party since the formation of the transitional government were directed not just against the military. They were also against the civilian heads in the transitional government and the centrist political parties in the ruling alliance. The protestors alleged that these civilian sections made compromises and failed to stand up to the military. By this time, the cost of living was continuing to spiral out of control. The civilian section of the transitional government had no control over the businesses owned by the army. Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok revealed that up to 82% of the economy was being controlled by the army. Protest leaders felt that the purpose of all this was to make lives unlivable for the people in order to spread disaffection against the transitional government. When the masses were sufficiently desperate, the army would be able to step in to bring the situation under control by dissolving the government and usurping full state power again. On October 25th, the military stage a successful coup. The Prime Minister and civilian leaders in the transitional government were arrested. President and Army Chief Abdul Fatal Burhan announced the dissolution of the transitional government and declared a state of emergency. Internet connectivity was suspended 2022. But the people of Sudan have not accepted this military rule. In the over four months since the coup, civilians have been regularly organizing massive demonstrations. Several nationwide march of millions have been organized in the face of brutal military oppression and crackdown. By March 1st, 85 people had been killed and 3200 injured since the October coup according to data compiled by the Hadrian organization. Children are also not being spared by the security forces. Over 200 children are said to have been detained since the coup and subjected to all forms of violence. The mass resistance against the junta is being spearheaded by a network of over 5200 resistance committees that were organized in neighborhoods across Sudan during the course of the December Revolution. On February 28th, the Khartoum Coordination of Resistance Committees proposed a long-awaited charter for the establishment of the People's Authority. This document puts forth a militant roadmap for the transition of the current military rule to full civilian democracy. This charter rejects all calls including by the US and UN to negotiate with the military and demands nothing short of a full civilian government. This government will be tasked with prosecuting the generals who led the coup and the civilians who collaborated with them. It will also hold to account the political parties which shared power with the army from mid-2019 in the transitional government. The charter aims to reform the state security sector by dissolving the various militias and forming a single national army that is answerable to the civilian government. It calls for freeing of the economy from army control and also calls for a review of the decades of neoliberal reforms enacted under the Bashir regime. The military group might make it seem that the civilian forces are back to where they started but their unity is stronger than ever and it is that much harder for the junta to break down the people's spirit of resistance. At the same time divisions and fissures appear to be widening within the army. There have been reports about Burhan fearing that he himself might be replaced by another coup. Despite the widespread repression, protests are continuing with increasing participation. The civilian groups are resolute about continuing this movement until democracy is established in Sudan.