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The transition process was always a bit unstable. There were plenty of warnings that SudanвЂ™s democratic transition was in danger. SudanвЂ™s transition was already pretty shaky before the coup Nugdalla, a Sudanese researcher currently based in Washington, DC. вЂњWhatвЂ™s being spread around now is that вЂweвЂ™ve done this before, and we can do it again,вЂќ said Sarah O. How they can achieve that is uncertain, but the ongoing protests are a sign the military cannot fully undo the democratic project Sudan started. The coup proved the pro-democracy camp right, which is strengthening their demand for a civilian-led government. From the beginning, protesters did not trust the military to usher in democracy, and theyвЂ™ve continued to distrust the armed forces and push for civilian control, even before the takeover this week. Civil society groups are calling for large-scale protests on October 30 in the latest act of defiance against the coup. But SudanвЂ™s civil society, which helped bring about the revolution that ousted al-Bashir in 2019, remains well-organized and strong. That offers a bleak outlook for SudanвЂ™s democratic experiment. вЂњThe military has really bared its teeth here - and the more that we see violence deployed by the security forces, the more difficult itвЂ™s going to be to go back to this old arrangement.вЂќ вЂњThe trust has been broken,вЂќ said Michael Woldemariam, director of the African Studies Center at Boston University. Despite international and regional pressure on the Sudanese military to restore the transitional government, experts said it is difficult to see a way forward under the same framework.

Some pro-democracy leaders have reportedly been detained.ДЄll of this makes for a very volatile, and unpredictable, situation. At least 170 people have been injured, and at least seven people killed in MondayвЂ™s protests, according to data compiled by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The Sudanese military shut down the internet, making it difficult to fully understand the scope of the resistance - and the security forcesвЂ™ response to it - especially outside major cities like Khartoum. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, SudanвЂ™s top general, orchestrated the power grab, detaining the civilian prime minister Abdalla Hamdok and other civilian leaders, and firing ambassadors who resisted the takeover.Д«ut the coup also reignited resistance, as protesters returned to the streets in cities and towns across Sudan to denounce the military takeover. MondayвЂ™s coup has upended that entire endeavor, fracturing what was already a tenuous arrangement between the military and civilian factions and jeopardizing any gains made.

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Civil society and protest leaders and the military ultimately reached a power-sharing arrangement that put both in charge of the country with the commitment of transitioning to full civilian rule, which would lead to a new constitution and elections in 2023. The countryвЂ™s democratic project began just two years ago, after SudanвЂ™s longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir was ousted amid mass protests in 2019. SudanвЂ™s move toward democracy is in peril, after the military seized control of the countryвЂ™s transitional government in a coup. | Ebrahim Hamid/AFP via Getty ImagesA takeover by military leaders is threatening the countryвЂ™s democratic transition. Supporters of the Umma Party, SudanвЂ™s largest political party, chant slogans during a protest against a military coup, on October 29, in the city of Omdurman.