Six months since coup, Sudan promises to keep up democracy fight

Six months ago, Sudan’s military staged a coup that put an end to Sudan’s frail democratic transition that had begun with the removal of longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir three years ago.

Since the October 25 power grab, security forces have killed dozens of anti-coup protesters and arrested hundreds more, with rights groups accusing them of forcefully disappearing, raping, and torturing demonstrators, reports Al Jazeera.

But while the crackdown has upended countless lives, it has not broken the spirit of the pro-democracy movement.

Members of the resistance committees – neighbourhood groups driving the protests through coordinating nationwide marches – say the brutal repression has only hardened their opposition to military rule and pledge to to step up demonstrations after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan concludes next week.

“We know the security forces are trying to put us through all sorts of pain … to make us wonder whether our cause is worth suffering for,” Dania Atabani, 22, told Al Jazeera.

“But we have reached the point of no return.”

Return of the old guard:

Since the coup, members from the National Congress Party (NCP), which al-Bashir founded in 1998, have been released from prison and reappointed to senior positions in the intelligence service and state bureaucracy. Others have also retrieved millions of dollars’ worth of assets which were confiscated during the democratic transition.

Kholood Khair, a Sudanese expert who heads Insight Strategy Partners, a think-tank in the capital, Khartoum, told Al Jazeera that coup leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan is relying on the NCP to whip up a constituency ahead of a possible election next year.