The General Who Signed a Constitutional Declaration With the People His Own Forces Had Just Massacred
Sudan — Constitutional Profile
| 📅 Current Governing Document | Draft Constitutional Declaration — August 4, 2019 (amended 2025) |
| 🏛️ Government | Transitional — military-dominated since October 2021 coup |
| 🌍 Capital | Khartoum |
| 📄 Total Constitutions Since 1956 | Multiple — suspended, abolished or replaced after each coup |
| ⚠️ Current Crisis | Civil war between SAF and RSF since April 2023 |
| 👤 Al-Bashir's Rule | 30 years — ended April 2019 after mass protests |
On June 3, 2019, soldiers and paramilitaries under the command of Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo — known as Hemetti — opened fire on protesters who had been camped outside the military headquarters in Khartoum for weeks. At least 118 people were killed. Bodies were thrown into the Nile. Survivors described rape and deliberate executions. Eight weeks later, Hemetti sat down at a table in Khartoum and signed a constitutional declaration with the same civilian coalition whose members his forces had just massacred. It was the document meant to guide Sudan toward democracy. He signed it with full military honors.
A Country That Has Treated Its Constitution Like a Lease Agreement — Renewed or Cancelled Whenever Convenient
Sudan's constitutional history isn't really a story of one founding document and its evolution over time. It's a series of documents, each one attached to whoever held power at the moment of its creation, and each one cancelled when the next coup arrived. The first permanent Constitution of Sudan was drafted in 1973, incorporating the Addis Ababa Agreement that had ended the first Sudanese civil war. The 1985 military coup led to suspension of that constitution and its replacement with an interim document later in the year. One of the first acts of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation after seizing power in 1989 was to abolish the interim constitution.
That 1989 coup brought Omar al-Bashir to power. He promised to prepare a new constitution. It was not until January 1998 — nine years later — that Sudan convened a constitutional conference to draft one. The process excluded almost everyone who disagreed with him. The Umma Party and the Democratic Unionist Party refused to participate. Most Southerners boycotted the conference. The resulting document was approved in a referendum held within a one-party political system, which raised its own questions about how freely that approval had actually been given.
The President Who Declared a State of Emergency Against His Own Parliament
Even the constitution al-Bashir had arranged for himself wasn't safe from al-Bashir. The Speaker of the National Assembly Hassan al-Turabi supported an amendment that would have limited presidential powers. Al-Bashir's response was immediate and blunt — he dissolved the National Assembly and declared a state of emergency under the very constitution that body had been created to uphold. These steps suspended the decentralization process stipulated in the constitution and gave al-Bashir full authority over the states. Legislators supporting al-Turabi challenged the state of emergency before the Constitutional Court, which concluded that al-Bashir's actions were constitutional.
A constitutional court, in a country where al-Bashir had shaped the entire political establishment, ruled that al-Bashir dissolving parliament was perfectly legal. Whoever was surprised by that outcome wasn't paying close attention to how the previous decade had gone.
Bread Prices Started the Revolution — and Three Decades of Authoritarian Rule Ended With a Pre-Dawn Visit
The protests that would eventually end al-Bashir's thirty-year rule didn't begin as a constitutional movement. They started over economics. On December 19, 2018, the abrupt tripling of bread prices and the removal of wheat and fuel subsidies triggered spontaneous riots in Atbara, which rapidly spread to the capital Khartoum and other major urban centers. Initially driven by economic grievances, the demonstrations rapidly morphed into a nationwide popular uprising demanding al-Bashir's immediate resignation.
The final act was handled quietly, before most of the city was awake. Before dawn on April 11, 2019, the heads of Sudan's four main security apparatuses arrived at President Omar al-Bashir's residence to deliver the message that he must go. At 3:30 a.m., the leaders of the security agencies told Sudan's longtime leader that there was no alternative but for him to step down. Thirty years of rule ended in a pre-dawn conversation at the presidential residence, conveyed by the very security forces that had enforced it. Al-Bashir was later convicted of corruption. He still faced charges connected to the deaths of demonstrators who had protested against him in his final months in power.
The Massacre That Happened Between the Deal and the Signing
What came next was the part of Sudan's transitional story that the formal diplomatic language of constitutional declarations tends to smooth over. Following the removal of al-Bashir, the military's Transitional Military Council took control. Civilians kept protesting, demanding a direct handover to civilian rule. On June 3, 2019, forces associated with the Rapid Support Forces cleared protesters from their primary demonstration site in Khartoum. At least 118 people were killed between June 3 and June 20, according to investigation committee findings. Forty bodies were thrown into the Nile. The RSF raped more than 70 women and men, according to doctors in Khartoum hospitals. The African Union suspended Sudan's membership in the organization in response.
Then, despite all of that, the negotiations continued. With mediation by Ethiopia and the African Union, a power-sharing agreement was signed — first as a Political Agreement on July 17, then as the Draft Constitutional Declaration on August 4, 2019. Ahmed Rabie signed for the civilian Forces of Freedom and Change. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo signed for the Transitional Military Council. Celebrations broke out across Khartoum. Fireworks were set off. The man whose forces had massacred protesters eight weeks earlier had just co-signed the document meant to protect the rights of those same citizens going forward.
A Document Built Around a Ticking Clock — That Then Got Stopped
The constitutional declaration was explicit about its own temporary nature and the timeline it was meant to enforce. A sovereign council would govern Sudan for a transitional period, headed by a military general during the first 21 months, followed by a civilian for the remaining 18 months. The Forces of Freedom and Change would appoint the prime minister. At least 40 percent of the transitional legislative council's seats would be reserved for women. The whole arrangement was meant to lead to elections.
On October 25, 2021 — just as the transfer to civilian leadership of the Sovereignty Council was scheduled to happen — General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan declared a coup. By suspending specific articles of the Constitutional Document, al-Burhan sought to exclude existing civilian partners from the governance of Sudan and return the military's power to what it was before the 2019 agreement. Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok was detained at dawn. The constitutional clock that had been ticking toward civilian rule was simply stopped. The military retained the form of the transitional arrangement while gutting its substance — keeping enough of the structure in place while removing the civilian oversight that had given it meaning.
Then the Two Men Who Had Both Signed the Same Declaration Started a War Against Each Other
The final chapter in Sudan's constitutional story — at least as of this writing — is the collapse of the relationship between the two military figures who had dominated the post-Bashir period. On April 15, 2023, fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces under al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces under Hemetti. What began in Khartoum spread rapidly across the country. The conflict has since killed tens of thousands and displaced millions — one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world.
The constitutional declaration that both men had signed in August 2019, amended in February 2025 to remove references to both the Rapid Support Forces and the Forces of Freedom and Change, was by that point governing almost nothing in practice. Sudan has a transitional constitutional document. It also has two rival military forces each claiming their own authority, an ongoing civil war, and no functioning path to the elections the document had promised would eventually arrive. A country that has cycled through constitutions tied to whoever held power has now reached the point where two holders of power are fighting over the same broken country — with the constitutional document signed by both of them lying somewhere in between.
Constitution at a Glance
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Independence from Britain and Egypt | January 1, 1956 |
| First Permanent Constitution | 1973 |
| 1985 Coup (Constitution Suspended) | April 1985 |
| 1989 Coup (Al-Bashir Seizes Power) | June 30, 1989 |
| 1998 Constitution Adopted | Under single-party conditions |
| 2005 Interim National Constitution | Following Comprehensive Peace Agreement |
| South Sudan Secession | July 9, 2011 |
| Al-Bashir Ousted | April 11, 2019 (after 30 years in power) |
| June 3 Khartoum Massacre | At least 118 killed June 3–20; AU suspends Sudan |
| Constitutional Declaration Signed | August 4, 2019 |
| Military Coup (Burhan) | October 25, 2021 (civilian transfer halted) |
| SAF–RSF Civil War Begins | April 15, 2023 |
| Constitutional Declaration Amended | February 23, 2025 |
📥 Read Sudan's 2019 Constitutional Declaration
Read more about the constitutional framework currently governing Sudan's transitional period:
👉 Read Sudan's Constitutional Declaration — Full Text
A constitutional declaration co-signed by a general whose forces had killed at least 118 protesters just eight weeks earlier. A transitional clock stopped the moment it was about to transfer power to civilians. Two signatories now fighting a civil war against each other with millions of people caught in the middle. What part of Sudan's story surprised you most? Tell us in the comments below.
This article reflects an editorial reading of publicly available constitutional text and reporting, intended for general understanding rather than legal interpretation. Readers are encouraged to consult the original constitutional text linked above to form their own view.
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