Sudan, 2021 — military coup attempt

Event Summary

On 21 September 2021 an attempted coup in Sudan, mounted by military officers loyal to the ousted dictator Omar al-Bashir, failed against the transitional government that had shared power between the military and civilians since Bashir's 2019 overthrow. The transitional arrangement, an uneasy partnership between the army and the pro democracy civilian coalition embodied in the Sovereignty Council and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok's government, was meant to steer Sudan toward democratic rule after decades of Bashir's Islamist dictatorship. In the pre dawn hours of 21 September, soldiers, described by the government as remnants of the old regime and members of an armored corps, attempted to seize a state media building in Omdurman, with reports of gunfire near a tank base, but they were quickly overpowered and at least 40 officers were arrested.

Prime Minister Hamdok said the plot was organized largely by Bashir loyalists. The failed coup, however, exposed and deepened the dangerous rift between the military and civilian components of the transition; barely a month later, on 25 October 2021, the army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan mounted a successful coup, arresting Hamdok and seizing power, derailing Sudan's democratic transition.