The Sudanese Professionals Association and the Question of Organization and Leadership in the Sudanese Revolution (2018-2019)

Abstract

The Sudanese Professionals Association has received special attention from some Sudanese scholars given its leadership and organizational role in transforming the spontaneous protests that occurred in December 2018 into a popular revolution. They set the goals and objectives that led to the overthrow of the Salvation regime on 11 April 2019, and the formation of a transitional coalition government shared between the army (the armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces) and the Forces of Freedom and Change Alliance. The present study deals with the historical origins and development of the Association, and the organizational and leadership strategies it adopted during the four months of country wide protests. It then examines the decline in the role of the Association during the transitional period that followed the fall of the regime and the formation of the transitional government. Finally, the paper analyses the partisan conflicts within the Forces of Freedom and Change Alliance and how the old regime’s supporters paved the way for the coup on 25 October 2021 and the ongoing war in Sudan.