A Timeline of Key Political Events in Post-colonial Sudan
This timeline was compiled by Sara Abbas, Rabab Elnaiem, and Nisrin Elamin. For further context, see “In Sudan, The People’s Revolution Versus the Elite’s Counterrevolution,” published by Hammer and Hope.
1955 – 1999
1955 – On the eve of Sudan’s independence, a mutiny by the southern Sudanese soldiers of the Equatoria Corps takes place in and around Torit, in Equatoria state, Sudan, against the British administration. It quickly spreads to other southern cities. The mutiny was partly inspired by northern elites implementing neo-colonial policies of marginalization towards the South, but also by their repressive response to a series of labor protests and the dismissal of 300 southern workers from a cotton scheme. It is squashed, but lays the ground for the Anya Nya rebellion in 1962.
1956 – Sudan declares its independence, ending its status as a condominium of Britain and Egypt
1958 – A military coup, led by General Ibrahim Abboud, successfully takes place.
1962 – A rebellion begins in the south, led by the Anya Nya movement, against marginalization, discrimination and exclusion of the south by the Arab and Muslim- dominated north, launching what becomes known as the civil war.
1964 – A civil uprising spearheaded by unions and students in the capital, Khartoum, takes place, bringing down the Abboud military regime, and leading to a period of parliamentary multi-party politics. The uprising is known as the “October Revolution”.
1969 – A military coup, led by Jafaar Nimeri, successfully takes place. Nimeri installs a military dictatorship, “The May Regime”.
1972 – Under the Addis Ababa peace agreement between the Nimeri regime and the Anya Nya, the south becomes a self-governing region still attached to Sudan. Over the next ten years, the regime erodes the agreements reached.
1983 – A rebellion begins again in the south, led by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM). Dr. John Garang de Mabior heads the movement.
1985 – A civil uprising, the “Intifada”, takes place, led by unions and trade associations. It leads a year later to elections and a brief period of parliamentary, multi-party politics. The civil war in the south continues. The 1980s are characterized amongst other things by structural adjustment and serious famine in parts of the country.
1989 – 1996 – The National Islamic Front, the third biggest party in Parliament, seizes power in a military coup d‘etat in 1989. In the following years, the “National Salvation Regime” as it becomes known launched an Islamization state project known as the “Civilizational Project”. Independent unions, women’s groups, and political parties are banned and tens of thousands are jailed, tortured, exiled and/or removed from government positions. More than 30 thousand public workers are removed from their jobs as part of a new wave of structural adjustment policies, “for the public good”. “Public Order” laws are instituted in several states including Khartoum to police women and girls presence, dress and behavior in public space. By 1992, the government had formed paramilitary groups called the “Popular Defence Forces” and declared Jihad in the south. Mass atrocities were committed in the 1990s by the military and the PDF against civilians in southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains, a region on the border between the northern and southern states. A conflict within the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement leads to scores of additional deaths in the south. Omar Al-Bashir is appointed president in 1993. Armed and unarmed resistance to the regime is fierce.
1997 – the United States government, under President Clinton, imposes comprehensive economic, financial and trade sanctions on Sudan, citing “sponsorship of international terror, [Sudan’s] effort to destabilize neighboring countries, and its abysmal record on human rights — including religious persecution.” Osama Bin Laden had been expelled by the Salvation Regime the year prior, after being harbored by the regime for the previous five years. A year later, the US bombs the Al-Shifa Pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum, at the time one of Sudan’s largest manufacturers of medicines specializing in anti-malarial drugs.
1999 – Sudan begins to export oil, with China, Malaysia and India dominating the sector, and sharing profits with the regime. This accelerates the process of the state‘s abandonment and privatization of agricultural schemes like the Gezira scheme, as the economy is recentered on oil. This has devastating impacts on rural livelihoods, already suffering from decades of state neglect and instability. A power struggle takes place around that time within the regime, with Al-Bashir emerging victorious.
2002 – 2017
2002-2005 – A peace process is launched and concluded between the Salvation regime and the Sudan People‘s Liberation Movement, to end “Africa‘s longest running civil war“, in the south of Sudan. The agreement, known as the “Comprehensive Peace Agreement“, paves the way for a referendum in 2011 on the future of South Sudan.
2003 – A rebellion begins in Sudan’s western region, Darfur. Two armed movements emerge, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, and the Justice and Equality Movement. The groups cite the marginalization of Darfur, especially African Darfurian tribes, by the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum, and by successive previous regimes. The regime responds by forming militias from certain Arab tribes, which become known as the Janjaweed. The Janjaweed, alongside the military, practice a scorched earth policy especially targeting villages and members of the Zaghawa, Fur and Masalit, three Darfur ethnic groups constructed as “African“. A genocide unfolds. This is a period of land dispossession and mass displacement from resource rich land, some of which is now being used for mining. Grave sexual violence against Darfurian African women and girls becomes widespread. Several peace agreements in the ensuing years fail to end the war.
2009 – The Girifna youth group is founded, which began as a voter registration group before evolving into an organization calling for the fall of the regime. Several other pro-democracy youth and student groups, including Change Now, form in the following years.
2009 – The International Criminal Court in The Hague issues an arrest warrant for President Al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
2010 – The International Criminal Court issues second arrest warrant for President al-Bashir – this time on charges of genocide.
2011 – South Sudan gaines independence after a referendum vote, but some border areas such as Abyei remain in dispute. Most oil fields are located in South Sudan, thus falling outside the control of the regime in Khartoum. The loss of 75% of oil revenues creates a massive economic problem for the regime. It attempts to solve it through a shift towards gold mining, agribusiness and austerity.
2012 – June – Protests in Khartoum against austerity measures, after the regime cuts fuel and other subsidies as a response to the drop in oil revenue.
2012 – The Sudanese Professionals Federation is established, the name was later changed to the Sudanese Professional Association (SPA) in 2013.
2013 – The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia is founded by Al-Bashir from the remnants of the Janjaweed, and put under his direct command. They are used initially as border guards to stop migrants from crossing the border between Darfur and Libya.
2013 – Another wave of demonstrations takes place over subsidies cuts. Hundreds of demonstrators are killed by the state. The first neighborhood resistance committees form in secret.
2014 – The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court stops investigations into war crimes in Darfur, citing lack of support from the UN Security Council.
2015 – The Khartoum Process, an agreement between the regime in Khartoum, neighboring countries and the European Union, is set in motion. Ostensibly designed to reduce human trafficking and establish safe migration routes, the Process is shown by human rights organizations and researchers to actually center around migration control, with the aim of preventing migrants from reaching the Mediterranean and crossing into Europe. The process legitimizes the transfer of $200 million from the European Union to the Al-Bashir regime, which uses the RSF to militarize the border region between Sudan and Libya.
2015 – The regime begins sending both military troops and RSF soldiers as ground troops to fight in Yemen, as part of the Saudi-led war against the Houthis. Some of the RSF soldiers are children.
2016 – November-December – Street and home protests take place in response to International Monetary Fund-prompted price hikes for basic goods. The State disperses protests, arrests opposition politicians, bans media coverage.
2017 – US announces partial lifting of sanctions.
2018 – Present
2018 January – Protests against the staggering rise in the price of bread and other essential commodities take place.
2018 – November – SPA holds a press conference and presents findings of a wage study; this is followed by a statement from SPA calling for the need of raising the minimum wage.
2018 December – Protests take place in Mayerno, Damazin, and Atbara in Sudan. They quickly spread to other cities, including the capital Khartoum. The banned coalition of unions and trade associations, SPA becomes a key organizer of protests. Non-violence emerges as a key principle of the movement. Meanwhile, the state attempts to repress the protests with arrests, live rounds of fire and tear gas.
2019 January – A “Declaration of Freedom and Change” is signed, uniting most of the opposition political forces to form the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC). More and more neighborhood Resistance Committees begin to form around the country.
February 2019 – President Omar Al-Bashir declares a state of emergency.
April 6, 2019 – The Sudanese Professionals Association calls in the leadup to this day for a march on the military headquarters in the capital Khartoum. Thousands answer the call and a sit-in is established outside the military headquarters in Khartoum and in 13 other cities. Cracks in the military appear with sections of the army refusing to suppress the sit-in and in some cases, defending them from the police and security forces.
April 11, 2019 – The military announces that they have deposed president Omar Al-Bashir and placed him under arrest.
2019 April – June – The military junta, now named the Transitional Military Council (TMC), under the leadership of General Abdel Fattah al Burhan, begins negotiations with civilian organizations to reach an agreement. The RSF is included in the TMC.
2019 April 21 – Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates announce $3 billion in aid to the TMC in attempts to shore up the junta. Protests call for the rejection of aid. The Putin-affiliated mercenary group, the Russian Wagner Group, a player in the plunder of Sudanese gold with regime permission and a close collaborator with the RSF, is advising the regime on suppressing protests.
2019 June 3 – The military attacks the sit-in in Khartoum and across other cities with live rounds and carry out a massacre killing over 120, and raping an unknown number. A big role in the massacre is played by the RSF.
2019 June 4 – The SPA calls for “complete civil disobedience“ and a 3-day general strike in opposition to the Khartoum massacre.
2019 June 30 – Despite the internet blackout following the massacre, the resistance committees and other revolutionary bodies mobilize protests of millions around the country, rejecting military rule.
2019 August – After regional mediation and pressure from Western countries, the TMC and the FFC sign a “Transitional Constitutional Declaration” that lays out a power-sharing government of military and civilians and a three-year process for achieving full civilian rule. The RSF is legitimized in the document as a parallel militarized force alongside the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF).
2019 August 21 – Abdalla Hamdok (a civilian technocrat and economist friendly with the international financial institutions and spokesperson of the FFC) is appointed Prime Minister.
2020 – The Transitional Government, in hopes of removal of sanctions to pave the way for debt relief, is pressured by the Trump administration to agree to normalization with Israel as part of the “Abraham Accords”. The Transitional Government is also required to pay $335 million to the victims of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, victims of the USS Cole attack, and the family of murdered USAID employee John Granville. The US removes Sudan from its “ State Sponsors of Terrorism” List and drops most remaining sanctions. Meanwhile, in Sudan, the economic crisis reaches new heights, particularly inflation.
2021 October 25 – The military carries out a coup jointly with the RSF, arresting Hamdok and other high level civilians in the Transitional Government.
2021 October 30 – The Resistance Committees take the lead in calling for a “march of millions” in opposition to the coup. This ushers in a campaign of civil disobedience and regular Friday marches against the military. Demands are for free healthcare, the army returning to the barracks, and the dissolution of the RSF.
2021 November 21 – Hamdok is released by the military, agreeing to a unilateral “agreement” that was rejected by the FFC, SPA and the RCs.
2022 January 2 – Hamdok resigns as prime minister.
2021 November – 2022 April – Resistance Committees, while continuing the organizing of civil disobedience and weekly demonstrations against the military, begin the process of the drafting of a series of “revolutionary charters” around the country. This initiates a bottoms-up participatory process of laying out a roadmap to a new civilian state.
2022 December – A new round of negotiations between the military and the Forces of Freedom and Change creates the “Framework Agreement” and a new timeline for a transitional government and the transition to civilian rule. The RCs reject this agreement.
2023 April 15 – Tensions that have been simmering between the RSF and the military (SAF) explode into war. It quickly spreads to engulf vast areas of the country, also resulting in the destruction of the capital, Khartoum. The RCs reject both factions and call for an end to the conflict and immediate civilian rule. The RCs and other grassroots civil structures and initiatives launch local neighborhood “emergency rooms”, run by volunteers, to help with evacuation, resettlement, and healthcare (as the formal health infrastructure is mostly destroyed in the fighting). The number of rooms expands in the next months, and many open “communal kitchens” to respond to the hunger crisis.