Coup a 'miscalculation' from army under 'existential' threat from transition

“In many ways, this is a miscalculation that the military has made,” Jonas Horner, senior Sudan analyst at the Crisis Group, told Middle East Eye.

“I think they underestimated the resilience and determination that the street would show in the face of this.”

“The military's strategic approach appears to have largely been based on creating conditions where people felt that the government was not responding to their needs,” he added.

This, Horner argued, not only shows a lack of understanding of what people in the streets wanted, but also “reflects how existential this transition to a democratic participatory government is for the military”.

“The military's been in power in Sudan for 52 of the 65 years since independence. And so they're very reticent about giving up power.”