Paper short abstract:

Critically documenting aspects of the dynamic civic space in Sudan during the military coup period (particularly the first year) that are often forgotten after the war. Significant civil-society and popular democracy activities took place around that period and affected later events.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will present a critical documentation of aspects of the dynamic civic space in Sudan during the military coup period (particularly the first year, October 2021 - October 2022) that abruptly ended a historical transitional period in the country (August 2019 - October 2021). After the April 2023 war broke out, the period of the coup was often treated, in writings, as the year when political tensions heightened and led to the war. That made most writings about the period oblivious to documenting and understanding the significant civil-society and popular democracy activities that took place around that period and affected later events. Three important trends marked that year of the coup from the perspective of non-state actors: (a) the socio-political maturing process of the resistance committees (RCs); (b) the continuing momentum (from the transitional period) of local initiatives and labour movements; and (c) the quagmire that donor-funded NGOs found themselves in as a result of abruptly losing the more favourable conditions of the transitional period. All this took place against a backdrop of increasing violence and rapidly deteriorating economic conditions in the country. The paper argues that while that particular period is unique – a military coup period sandwiched between a political transition and a nationwide war – various lessons can be drawn from it about the role of non-state actors in political crises. One important lesson is about the potentially higher level of resilience and responsiveness with locally-resourced actors compared to donor-funded actors.