Laura Rozen Profile picture
Reporting on foreign policy. Current: Diplomatic Substack, Just Security ed bd. Al-Monitor Politico Foreign Policy alum. lkrozen threads, lkrozen.bsky, at gmail

Nov 3, 2021, 11 tweets

WSJ: After meeting US envoy Jeff Feltman Oct. 24, Sudan Gen. al-Burhan “boarded a jet to Egypt for secret talks to ensure his plot would have regional support.” Sisi reassured him. Upon his return to Khartoum, Burhan arrested dozens of officials, inc. PM wsj.com/articles/milit…

Sudan’s military coup is the 4th in Africa this year. “Military strongmen in Guinea, Chad & Mali have in recent months taken power from weakened governments that were vulnerable to foreign interference and plagued by poor governance, stuttering economies, and insecurity”

Attempted “military coups have been foiled this year in Madagascar, Central African Republic and Niger.”

“In Africa, this year has seen a quadrupling of coups after just one putsch in 2020—again in Mali—and an average of just two a year over the past decade. The number is the highest since 1980… “

👉🏼 “Diplomats and analysts say that a key reason for the surge in coups is that the willingness of a number of international powers to deal with authoritarian regimes has lowered the potential cost of a regime change.”

China, Russia—and it seems, the Gulf states—support the military coups. The US and Europe oppose.

“Egypt has been seeking international support for its dispute with Ethiopia” over a giant dam. “Just before the coup, Egypt’s intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel, traveled to Khartoum to meet Gen. Burhan—but shunned PM Hamdok.”

The Egyptians were unhappy with Sudan PM Hamdok’s “public openness to the Ethiopian dam…’Hamdok has to go,’ Mr. Kamel told Gen. Burhan, one Sudan government adviser said.”

“In weekend anticoup protests that Secretary of State Antony Blinken said numbered in the millions, demonstrators decried President Sisi as the hidden hand behind the coup.

‘Abdel Fatta Burhan and Sisi—one and the same,’ they chanted.”

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Beyond Russia and China. Not sure the United States has fully grappled with so many of its Middle East partners being forces for spreading authoritarianism and anti democracy/military juntas, that those mostly authoritarian states see as better serving their interests.

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