Sudan’s democratic transition is upended by a second coup in two years

THE SCRIPT was all too familiar. First, Sudan awoke to find that Abdalla Hamdok, the prime minister appointed by protest leaders two years ago, had been arrested by the army. Then the internet was switched off. Bridges into the capital, Khartoum, were closed, as was its airport. “What is happening now in Sudan is a military coup,” said Nasredeen Abdulbari, the justice minister. Soon protesters were on the streets, burning tyres and chanting slogans, such as “retreat is impossible.”