General Burhan Whitewashes: On November 1, Sudan’s top military official, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, told the Arabic language service of the Russian-state broadcaster Sputnik, that the military takeover he led a week earlier was necessary to tackle “disorder” in the country’s transition to democracy.
General Burhan said the international backlash against the move was expected. He accused news media of misleading reporting about Sudan. Burhan described the takeover as similar to what happened in April 2019, when Sudan’s army overthrew President Omar al-Bashir after months of mass protests.
“Whoever thinks that this is a coup, just look at any corrective movement in the government like April 12, which could be thought of as a coup,” he said.
That is misleading. In fact, the army violated an agreement signed with pro-democracy protesters in 2019 just a few weeks before a planned transfer of power to civilian leaders.
General Burhan uses a classic and well-proven method among despots: “everything is the media’s fault, I’m innocent.”
