The first indication of a coup was an ominous radio silence in the predawn hours of Friday. Then at 8 a.m., Radio Omdurman, Sudan's official station, resumed with martial music, followed by a solemn announcement: "The June Revolution has come to restore to the Sudanese citizen his injured dignity and rebuild the Sudan of the future."
Thus calmly and apparently bloodlessly, the three-year-old civilian government of Prime Minister Sadiq el Mahdi was toppled late last week. Although the timing was unexpected, the coup came as no surprise. The armed forces had demonstrated unusual restraint during the Prime Minister's ineffectual reign, which...
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