Forces fight to keep Sudan in dark ages

The assassination attempt on Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok (pictured) is an indication that Sudan is not out of the woods yet.

Usurpers of power are not ready to let Sudan heal.

They are at it again, barely six months before the ink that signed an agreement between the Transitional Military Council and the Sudanese Professional Association dried.

But this is not just another assassination attempt. It comes with worrying political overtones that ordinary Sudanese folks do not deserve.

These people have had their fair share of the problems that come with living in dictatorship.

They have endured many tests – human rights abuse, repression, corruption – like gold in a refiner’s fire.

They have survived living under an absolute government.

The least they deserve is peace.

This new development is a textbook case of the sovereignty council's failure to exercise leadership.

It is strange that the establishment in Sudan has not learnt from over five decades of harrowing civil war that claimed thousands of innocent lives courtesy of State negligence and atrocities under deposed dictator Omar al-Bashir.

This is the time for leaders to reflect on their country and the mistakes they allowed to happen, and endeavor to initiate a conversation on how to prevent similar wrongdoings in the future.

For this cabal, quest for power is stronger than peace. That is why they will stop at nothing to preserve themselves.

Understood differently, this development, coming a few days after the Sudanese authorities hinted that they would extradite Bashir to the International Criminal Court, could mean a different thing.

Who wants Hamdok dead? Is this recent threat to his life related to the ICC case? Bashir, alongside three others, is wanted by the court of last resort to answer to charges of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

Hamdok – a technocrat with an impeccable credentials – took over a country torn apart by war. He promised to oversee reforms of financial institutions and reorganise Sudan's political system.

So far he has rejuvenated the push to have the US remove Sudan from its state sponsors of terrorism list. Forces that want to crater this process are the real enemies of Sudan.